THE  MAX  OF  KERTOTH 


ROBERT  NORWOOD 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 


ROBERT        NORWOOD 


THE 

MAN  OF  KERIOTH 


AUTHOR  OF  "THE  MODERNISTS,"  "THE  PIPER  AND 
THE  REED,"  "THE  WITCH  OF  ENDOR," 

ETC. 


WITH    AN     INTRODUCTION     BY 
ROBERT  JOHNSTON,  D.  C.  L. 


NEW  >CBJr  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1919, 
BY   GEORGE   H.  DORAN   COMPANY 


PRINTED   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES    OF   AMERICA 


TO 
MY  FATHER  AND   MY  MOTHER 

FROM  WHOM  I  FIRST  HEARD 
THE  STORY  OF  THE  CARPENTER 


2082497 


What  laughter  was  within  your  eyes 
That  saw  as  God  must  see ; 

And  by  that  laughter  make  us  wise, 
Dear  Man  of  Galilee. 


INTRODUCTION 

Poetry  is  the  highest  vehicle  of  spiritual  truth. 
Ideas   depend  greatly   on  the  form   used   to  ex- 
press   them.       Spiritual    truth    is 
Poetry  and         neither  local  nor  temporary ;  it  is 
Truth  universal  and  eternal;  it  is  bind- 

ing on  earth  and  in  heaven.  Crys- 
tallised forms  of  logical  thought,  enclosed  in  theo- 
logical terms  which,  in  turn,  are  dependent  on 
prevailing  philosophical  conceptions,  hinder  spiri- 
tual truth  on  its  march  down  the  ages.  Much 
harm  has  been  done  to  religion  by  the  unnatural 
marriage  between  the  poetry  of  Jesus  and  the 
logic  of  the  schoolmen.  To  bind  the  spiritual, 
which  is  permanent,  to  a  form  which  is  passing, 
is  to  impede  truth. 

The   Christian  religion  is   embarrassed  today 

because  of  the  alleged  indissolubility  of  the  union 

betwixt    the    Faith    and    the    Phi- 

Poetry  and        losophy  of  the  Nicene  Age.     It  has 

Religion  even   been    obscured   by    its   blood 

relationship    to    Judaism.      When 

the  poet  deals  with  religious  truth,  it  travels  on 

wings;  when  the  philosopher  unfolds  it,  it  walks 

on  crutches.     The  poet  is  elusive;  he  cannot  be 


x  INTRODUCTION 

cabined  or  confined.  The  philosopher  can  always 
be  found;  his  means  of  locomotion  do  not  lend 
themselves  to  flight. 

The   historical   gospels    (SS.   Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke)  are  occupied  chiefly  with  the  life  of  a  poet- 
teacher.     The  spiritualised  gospel 
A  Poet-  (S.    John)    gives    less    of   history, 

Teacher  but  is  richer  in  spiritual  truth.    In 

all  the  gospels,  however,  Jesus  is 
the  child  of  nature,  dreaming  on  the  hill-sides, 
walking  by  the  sea,  plucking  the  flowers,  sleep- 
ing in  the  storm.  He  is  poetical  in  the  form  of 
his  teaching:  his  kingdom  is  as  a  mustard  seed, 
a  pearl,  a  net  with  all  kinds  of  fishes.  He  is  a 
door,  a  loaf,  a  vine;  his  disciples  are  they  who 
enter  by  the  door,  eat  the  loaf,  and  become 
branches  of  the  vine.  Boldly  he  pushes  his  fig- 
ures into  the  region  of  conduct:  forgive  till 
seventy  times  the  sacred  number  seven,  turn  the 
other  cheek,  go  the  second  mile,  give  your  cloak 
with  the  coat.  When  the  logic-loving  philosopher 
receives  these  sayings  into  the  hardening  pot  of 
theology,  he  obscures  the  meaning,  and  makes  the 
way  of  performance  more  difficult.  But  the  poet- 
reader  receives  the  words,  sees  the  lessons,  and 
does  not  fall  back  upon  casuistry  for  light.  He 
can  apply  the  teaching  to  states  and  individuals 
alike.  The  rigid  thinker  is  driven  into  an  impasse 
in  conduct  by  the  hard  sayings  of  Jesus,  and 
frees  himself  by  insisting  on  the  oriental  hyper- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

bole  found  in  the  words.  The  poet  does  not 
stumble  at  hyperbole ;  it  is  his  native  tongue.  So, 
recognising  it  as  a  vehicle  of  truth,  he  passes 
beyond  the  form,  and  sees  the  thought  intended. 

It  may  be,  therefore,  that  the  poet's  outlook 
can  supply  the  demand  of  our  time,  for  an  esti- 
mate of  the  character  of  Jesus  con- 
The  Human  sistent  with  our  ideas  of  great 
Jesus  manhood,  and  for  an  interpreta- 

tion of  his  religion,  at  least  not 
irreconcilable  with  the  assured  findings  of  mod- 
ern knowledge.  The  Man  of  Kerioth  is  an  essay 
towards  this  end.  Jesus  of  the  play  is  very  man. 
The  Carpenter  of  Nazareth,  whose  handicraft 
Philip  admired,  is  presented  in  a  picture  so  win- 
some, so  tenderly  human,  that  it  will  draw  men 
to  him.  The  Carpenter  carries  himself  through 
the  marriage  scene  at  Cana,  where  wine  is  flow- 
ing freely,  with  a  divinely  subtle  aloofness  from 
its  folly,  with  such  gentleness  in  reproach,  that 
he  saves  the  drunken  Thomas  from  himself. 
Jesus  comes  out  of  the  scene,  sublime  without  any 
effort,  and  faithful  to  the  ideal  of  St.  John.  De- 
vout Christian  sentiment  is  rightly  suspicious  of 
such  adventures.  The  devout  soul  wonders  at  the 
scene,  and  understands  the  horror  of  the  religion- 
ists of  Jesus'  time,  who  sought  to  discredit  him 
by  saying,  "Behold,  a  man,  gluttonous ;  a  wine- 
bibber,  the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners." 

The  same  skill  is  shown  in  that  scene  where 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

Jesus   plays    with    the   children   by   the   seaside. 

Matthew  and  Luke  *  have  thought 
The  Great  it  worth  while  to  preserve  an  in- 
Playmate  stance  of  such  play.  We  are  told 

that  Jesus  watched  the  street  chil- 
dren playing  games.  When  the  stage  was  set 
for  a  funeral,  it  was  easy  to  provide  a  corpse  and 
mourners,  but  none  were  ready  to  take  the  part 
of  the  professional  weepers.  Then  a  wedding 
was  attempted.  A  bride  and  groom  were  selected, 
musicians  were  appointed,  but  none  were  willing 
to  dance  to  the  piping  on  such  a  hot  day.  Com- 
parison of  the  scene  in  the  play  with  the  miracles 
of  the  Apocryphal  gospels  will  illustrate  the  fidel- 
ity of  the  Man  of  Kerioth  to  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel  story.  Apocryphal  f  stories  of  Jesus- 
show  him  making  clay  birds  fly;  but  when  the 
birds  are  made  in  this  play,  Jesus  tells  the  chil- 
dren that  they  must  make  them  fly.  They  catch 
the  spirit  of  the  great  Playmate,  and  cry,  "We 
will,  we  will." 

The  human  Jesus  of  the  Gospel  has  been  ob- 
scured.    Our  Christ  has  been  too  ghostly,  and 

not  of  flesh  and  blood,  as  we  are. 
Jesus  and  ^or  ^s  reason>  chaplains  at  the 
the  New  front  say  that  Christ  is  unknown 

Humanism         to    many    soldiers.      One    Scottish 

Chaplain  $  has  been  bold  to  say, 
*  &  Matthew,  XI,  17. 
t  Cf.  Longfellow's  GOLDEN  LEGEND. 
t  AS  TOMMY  SEES  US,  Arnold,  London. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

"They  have  never  seen  him;  that  is  a  fact."  It 
is  not  true  to  say  that  Jesus  is  unknown;  it  is 
true  to  say  that  he  has  been  hidden  away,  that 
he  has  been  misunderstood.  The  Spirit  of  the 
Christ  was  incarnated  in  the  Carpenter  of  Nazar- 
eth that  the  exceeding  brightness  of  his  glory 
might  appear,  and  be  known  to  all  men.  But  the 
Christ  of  religious  circles  today  is  little  better 
thar  a  filmy  ghost,  without  flesh  and  blood.  The 
heroic  Jesus  of  the  Apocalypse  has  eyes  as  coals 
of  fire,  feet  of  burnished  brass,  and  a  voice  like 
the  breaking  of  many  waters.  This  Christ  has 
been  lost,  and  the  substitute  offered 

A  Great  and      ^as  no*  ^>een  accepted-     The  bitter 
Glowing  experience  of  the  last  four  years 

God-man  has  convinced  the  most  thoughtful 

that  a  new  and  broad  humanism 
alone  will  satisfy  the  religious  aspirations  of  our 
age.  The  inspiration  of  this  humanism  will  be  a 
great  and  glowing  God-man,  living  a  truly  human 
life. 

Two  influences  have  united  to  obscure  the  glory 
of  the  Christ-soul  incarnated  in  the  Carpenter 
of  Nazareth:  one,  the  exaggeration  of  the  super- 
natural element ;  the  other,  the  loss  of  sharp  lines 
in  the  picture  of  the  historic  Jesus,  in  the  Pauline 
quest  after  the  Christ.  One  cannot  doubt  that 
search  for  the  Holy  Soul  of  Jesus  was  necessary 
for  a  complete  Christology,  and  may  have  been 
rendered  imperative  by  a  cult  of  the  Man-Jesus  to 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  exclusion  of  his  spiritual  significance  to  the 
universe.  The  fact  remains  that,  in  our  cycle  of 
human  experience,  men  are  more  interested  in 
the  Christ  after  the  flesh  than  in  the  Over-soul 
of  Jesus.  Paul's  determination  "though  we  have 
known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  know  we  him  no 
more"  is  one  in  which  our  age  will  not  share. 

The   oldest   picture   of  Jesus   is    found   in   St. 
Mark's  gospel;  and  here  the  miraculous  element 

is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  As  we 
The  Oldest  pftss  away  from  Jesus  in  point  of 
Picture  of  time,  we  enter  more  immediately 
Je*us  into  the  region  of  the  unnatural 

and  the  unexpected.  Jesus  for- 
bade the  exploitation  of  his  cures,  yet  the  later 
disciples  emphasised  the  wonder  element.  The 
intellectual  development  of  men,  with  their  con- 
ceptions of  the  spiritual  and  the  physical  world, 
encouraged  the  development  of  wonder  and 
magic  in  ordinary  life.  In  our  time,  with  dif- 
ferent ideas  of  the  origin  of  the  world,  with  the 
thought  of  law  going  forward  majestically  from 
cause  to  effect,  the  wonder  element  becomes  more 
of  a  hindrance  and  less  of  a  help. 

There  are  three  different  ways  of  meeting  the 
problem  presented  by  the  wonder  element  as  found 

in  some  miracles  of  the  New  Testa- 

ment'      One  wa     denies  them  alto" 


Three  Ways 

of  Meeting         gether  :    miracles    do    not   happen  ; 

the  Problem       they  have  never  happened,  save  in 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

the  highly  coloured  imagination  of  the  unde- 
veloped and  uninstructed  mind.  Miracles  so  re- 
garded are  an  obstacle  to  the  spread  and  prog- 
ress of  the  gospel.  The  second  way  admits 
their  possibility,  but  denies  their  probability. 

They  stand  or  fall  on  the  histori- 
Miracles  cal  character  of  the  documents 

which  record  them.  Miracles  are 
neither  necessary  to  religion  nor  obstacles  to 
truth.  The  third  way  simply  passes  by,  with  the 
characteristic  nonchalance  of  the  Mystic,  the 
real  or  alleged  miraculous  element,  and  fixes  the 
mind  on  the  spiritual  significance  of  the  wonder. 

So,  in  the  play,  Blind  Bartimaus 
The  Mystic  walks  through  the  country  lanes  of 

Galilee,  seeing  beauty  and  wonder, 
splendour  and  glory,  with  the  eyes  of  his  awak- 
ened soul.  He  knows  a  cripple  who  is  happy  in 
spite  of  his  crutches,  because  he  has  overcome 
their  spiritual  handicap. 

"He  walks  with  greater  joy  on  summer  roads 
"Than  they  who  travel  on  their  sandalled  feet." 

So  also,  Bartimanis  has  been  cured  of  the  curse 
of  blindness,  because  he  has  risen  superior  to  the 
need  of  eyes.  Until  Bartimaeus  met  Jesus  he  was 
very  blind,  but 

"He  made  me  independent  of  two  eyes, 

"And  taught  me  how  to  see  life  through  the  soul." 

The   noble    company   of   the   blind   in   the   allied 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

armies  will  probably  be  the  first  to  understand 
the  worth   of  this   point   of  view, 

The  Noble  anc^  ^le  va^ue  °f  sucn  an  interpre- 
Company  of  tation.  Unless  the  Christian  Sci- 
the  Blind  entists  are  right  it  is  all  that  Jesus 

can  do  for  them  now.     The  Mystic 
does  not  say  that  the  cures  of  the  gospel  are  in- 
ventions ;  but  he  does  not  depend  on  wonder-signs 
in  the  physical  world,  because  he 
Christian  sees  so  clearlj  with  the  eyes  of  the 

Science  soul.     The  Mystic  knows  Jesus  as 

the  Friend,  very  close  and  very 
dear.  It  is  love  that  has  led  him  captive,  not  won- 
der, nor  power. 

The  tragedy  of  the  play  lies  in  the  soul  of  the 
Man  of  Kerioth.      Other  writers   of  imaginative 
literature  have  dealt  with  the  prob- 
lem   which    Judas    left.       Modern 

The  Tragedy  scholars  find  a  bias  against  Judas 
of  the  Play  .,  ,  __,  .  , 

in   the  gospels.      This   was   to   be 

expected;  and  we  must  not  be  sur- 
prised that  it  deepened  with  time.  The  problem 
has  increased  in  fascination  and  interest.  In- 
variably a  woman  has  been  introduced  into  the 
story;  but  in  making  Mary  of  Magdala  and  the 
Man  of  Kerioth  lovers  the  writer  has  broken 
new  ground.  The  problem  of  Judas,  however, 
has  no  relation  to  his  love,  nor  is  it  related 
to  his  greed  for  gold.  The  sorrow  of  Judas 
follows  too  quickly  on  his  offence  to  have  been 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

The  Demand  the  tragedy  of  a  villain.  Nor  can 
for  a  Sign  ambition  be  cited  to  explain  his 
sin.  The  curse  of  Judas  is  the 
curse  of  material  religion.  In  his  religious 
frenzy,  he  is  blind  to  the  real  significance  of 
things.  He  would  make  Jesus  a  ruler  and  di- 
vider over  Israel — a  role  which  Jesus  had  re- 
jected often.  The  lure  of  Judas  was  a  demand 
for  a  sign.  It  became  a  fixed  idea;  like  the  mo- 
notonous cry  of  the  insane,  the  words  of  Judas 
ring  through  the  play,  "A  sign,  a  sign." 

It  is  wicked  and  adulterous  to  ask  for  a  sign 
as  the  condition  of  faith.     Many  signs  follow  be- 
lief,   but   never   precede   it.      The 

The  Price  of  ^f18  of  the  haPPJ  cripple  and  the 
the  Potter's  blind  minstrel  were  significant — 
Field  but  not  to  the  Man  of  Kerioth. 

The  eager  soul  of  Judas  was 
wrecked  on  the  rock  of  the  material  in  religion — 
dependence  on  the  visible,  on  physical  wonder, 
external  authority,  on  signs  of  earth  and  heaven. 
This  is  the  price  of  the  Potter's  Field;  and  the 
Church  clumsily  clinging  to  signs  has  travelled 
for  too  many  ages  on  the  way  of  the  Man  of 
Kerioth. 

ROBEET  JOHNSTON. 
Church  of  the  Saviour, 
Philadelphia. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 


CHARACTERS 


Near  Bethabara. 


JUDAS,  of  Kerioth. 

CAIAPHAS,  High  Priest. 

PHILIP,  of  Bethsaida. 

YOUNG  MEN,  friends  of  Judas  and  Philip. 

WINE  VENDOR, 

PRIEST, 

LEVITE, 

PHARISEE, 

SCRIBE, 

BREAD  VENDOR, 

VOICE  OF  JOHN  BAPTIST, 

SOLDIER, 

LEPER, 

LEVI,  a  Publican. 

OBED,  the  Bridegroom  of  Cana. 

BARTIM^EUS,  a  Blind  Minstrel. 

THE  MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST, 

RABBI, 

ELDER, 

GUESTS, 

REVELLERS, 

SERVANTS, 

JESUS,  the  Carpenter. 

THOMAS,  a  Wine  Bibber. 


At  the  Wed- 
ding Feast. 


xxii  CHARACTERS 

SIMON,       "I 

ANDREW,    I 

T  >  Fishermen  of  Capernaum. 

JAMES, 

JOHN,        J 

NATHANIEL,  one  of  the  Disciples. 

A  LAME  MAN. 

SIMON'S  BOY. 

MARY,  of  Magdala. 

ERINNA,  a  Greek  Maid. 

MARY,  the  Mother  of  Jesus. 

ADA,  the  Bride  of  Cana. 

MAIDENS. 

A  WOMAN. 

A  LITTLE  GIRL. 

Children,  Vendors,  Men,  Women,  Sailors,  Camel 
Drivers,  Muleteers,  Soldiers,  Servants,  Priests, 
Pharisees,  Scribes. 


SCENES 

ACT  I 

A   roof  garden   of  Mary  Magdalene's  house  at 
Jerusalem. 

ACT  II 

Near    Bethabara,    at    the    River    Jordan.     One 
week  later. 

ACT  III 

The  Wedding  Feast  of  Cana.     Two  weeks  later. 

ACT  IV 

Lake  Shore  near  Capernaum.     Six  months  later. 

ACT  V 

Before  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane.     Two  years 
later. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 


ACT  I 

SCENE. — A    roof  garden   of  Mary  Magdalene's 
house  at  Jerusalem. 

In  the  background  a  vista  of  the  Temple 
with  a  tower  of  Pilate's  palace  against  an 
expanse  of  blue  sky.  On  the  right  a  massive 
vine-clustered  watt  with  an  arched  entrance. 
A  great  palm  tree  lifts  its  head  over  the  left 
battlement  of  the  roof.  Huge  jars  of  olean- 
der, tamarisk  and  fern  are  grouped  about  a 
central  fountain  forming  a  marble  square; 
a  deep  niche  in  the  front  of  the  fountain  is 
strewn  with  silken  pillows  of  many  colours. 
The  garden  is  roofed  from  the  glare  of  the 
sun  by  a  trellis  of  grape-vines. 

A  company  of  Maiden*  in  white  robes  cinc- 
tured with  golden  girdles  enter.  They  dance 
to  the  accompaniment  of  harps,  dulcimers 
and  cymbals,  moving  by  graceful  degrees 
down  to  the  fountain.  A  Greek  maid,  Erinna, 
begins  a  song  whose  refrain  is  caught  by  the 
others.  As  the  song  ends,  Mary  appears  with 
Judas,  Caiaphas,  Philip  and  a  number  of 
young  men. 

23 


24  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

ERINNA   [singing], 

Now  is  the  time  of  the  blossoming — 

0  little  green  buds  unfold! 
Soft  on  the  mouth  with  a  kiss  comes  Spring — 
A  lover  is  he  and  bold! 

Now  is  the  time  for  a  heart  to  tell — 

0  little  white  wings   unfold! 
The  word  that  my  lady  liketh  well — 

What  lover  would  not  be  bold? 

CAIAPHAS.     Well  sung,  Erinna! 
PHILIP  [to  Caiaphas]. 

Better  than  the  Levites. 
MARY   [to  Caiaphas,  as  they  move  down  to  the 

fountain] . 
Why    let    your    bearded    minstrels    bawl,    my 

Priest, 

When  there  are  maidens? 
CAIAPHAS   [leading  Mary  to  the  seat]. 

Would  you  have  my  ephod? 
MARY  [nestling  among  the  pillows']. 

I  am  not  emulous  of  ephods,  Priest. 
PHILIP     She  has  no  need  of  bells  above  her  feet, 

Whose  footfall  is  a  raindrop  on  the  grass. 
MARY  [lightly  to  Philip']. 
O  foolish  Philip ! 

[Erinna  and  the  maidens  with  the  young  men 
are  gathered  near  the  palm  at  left.  Caiaphas 
stands  at  the  right  of  Mary;  Philip  leans  on 
the  ledge  of  the  fountain,  at  her  feet;  Judas 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  25 

stands  behind   the  fountain  lookmg  out   to 
the  Temple.] 

PHILIP.  There  is  place  for  folly. 

JUDAS   [turning  and  approaching  the  group]. 
Ay,  in  Gehenna  where  the  pit  is  deep, 
And   where   the   unquenched  flame  is   hot   for 

fools ! 
CAIAPHAS    [a    hand    on    the    right    shoulder    of 

Judas], 

Well  said,  O  thunderer!     Now,  Philip,  now? 
PHILIP.     You  smell  of  altar  smoke  and  incense 

fumes, 

And  Judas  is  a  butcher ! 
MARY.  Philip,  peace! 

JUDAS  [Smiling  on  the  Philip]. 

He    who  .kills    time    with    laughter    may    not 

call— 
PHILIP.     Nay,  Judas,  it  is  I  whom  time  would 

slay; 

For  every  moment  is  an  arrow  shot 
Swift  from  his  bow,  and  I  am  pierced  to  heart 
By  many  moments — wanting  Mary's  mouth! 
MARY  [throwing  a  lotus,  plucked  from  the  foun- 
tain, at  Philip]. 

O  idler  with  fair  words,  take  up  your  harp; 
For  when  you  make  not  music  you  are  dull. 
PHILIP.   Must  I  stand  lonely,  twanging  on  a  harp? 
MARY.     Yea,  that  you  must. 
PHILIP  And  what  shall  be  my  song? 

MARY.     Sing  me  of  love. 


26  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

JUDAS.  Not  so,  my  yellow  head; 

Give  us  a  noble  chant  of  chariots, 
Measured  by  hiss  of  arrows  like  the  rain. 
PHILIP.     Ho,  there !  Erinna,   fetch  me  Sappho's 

harp, 

That  I  may  steal  a  moment  of  her  soul 
And  hold  these  Hebrews  helpless  with  a  song. 
{Erinna  leaves  the  group  at  left  and  yields  her 

harp  to  Philip;  his  fingers  stray  among  the 

strings  until  they  find  a  mighty  chord.] 
My    song   shall   be   of   hearts    whom   love    has 

hurt — 
Of    hearts    that    call    through    thundering    of 

shields : 

O  Love,  thou  art  like  grapes  crushed  for  the 

wine, 

And  the  corn  that  is  bruised  on  the  floor; 
A  hook  through  the  tendrils   of  the  young 

vine:  . 

Like  a  bolt  and  a  bar  on  a  door 
That  will  open  to  me  nevermore! 

Thunder  of  shields, 
Lightning  of  spears, 
Rain  of  the  arrows, 
Hail  of  the  stones 
Hurled  from  the  sling, 
When  the  foeman  appears; 
Better  to  die 
In  the  vaUey  of  bones, 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  27 

Than  to  live  without  love 
On  the  mountain  of  tears! 

O  Love,  thou  art  paths  that  are  lost  in  the 
sand 

To  the  sound  of  a  caravan  bell ; 
The  pallor  of  cheeks  at  the  touch  of  a  hand 

And  a  sigh  and  a  kiss  at  the  well ; 

Like  a  rain  of^wild  flowers  in  Hell! 

ERINNA   [standing  near\. 
Nay,  Philip ! 

PHILIP.  What!     Know  you  a  better  song? 

ERINNA.      That  was   not   Sappho. 

MARY  [to  Erinna~\. 

Out  on  you,  dear  Greek! 

ERINNA.     Why,  Mary  ? 

MARY.  Judith  is  the  word. 

CAIAPHAS.  Well  said! 

ERINNA.     In  the  wild  heart  of  Judith  there  was 

hate, 

In  Sappho's  only  love! 
[She  returns  to  the  group  at  left.] 
JUDAS.  Hate  for  the  crime 

Of  Holofernes ;  hate  for  every  wrong 
Done  to  her  people  whom  she  held  so  dear, 
That  she  was  well  nigh  wedded  unto  hate 
To  set  them  free. 

CAIAPHAS.  Oh,  for  another  Judith! 

JUDAS.     Is  she  not  here? 

CAIAPHAS.  Mary? 


28 

JUDAS.  As  great  of  heart. 

MARY.     Yea,  I  would  measure  any  with  my  love. 
PHILIP   [with  a  pretense  of  marking  a  beam]. 

The  cord  is  on  the  beam — mark  now  with  mine. 
MARY  [rising  to  meet  Philip^. 

My  love  against  your  love? 
PHILIP.       .  Lay  cord  to  cord 

Upon  the  beam. 
MARY   [measuring  as  with  a  cord.] 

Why,   Philip,   here   are   lengths 

Of  cord  beyond  the  beam !     So  is  man's  love 

Determined  by  the  common  length  of  life, 

While  woman's  love  is  measured  to  the  stars. 
A  YOUNG  MAN.     Now  is  your  cord  noosed  tight 
about  your  throat, 

Philip,  another  twist  and  you  are  done! 
A  YOUNG  MAN.     Mary,  his  time  for  hanging  has 

not  come. 
PHILIP  [to  the  young  men]. 

Peace,  boys! 

YOUNG  MEN.     O  yellow  head! 
PHILIP.  Hence  to  your  mothers — 

Erinna,  sing  these  babies  back  to  home! 
MAIDENS  [mocking  Philip  with  the  young  men}. 

La,  la,  la ! 

PHILIP.  Erinna,  sing! 

ERINNA  [over  her  shoulder^. 

Sappho's  way? 

JUDAS.       Why    waste    we    time   to    twittering    of 
harps, 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  29 

When  Roman  feet  tread  all  our  people  down 
Like  grapes  within  a  wine-vat? 

PHILIP.  Laugh   with   us. 

JUDAS.    Laughter  and  I  are  friends  no  more! 

PHILIP.  No  more — 

And  in  a  garden? 

JUDAS.  'Tis  a  place  to  weep! 

MARY.     Not  in  my  garden. 

JUDAS.  .Here  as  in  all  gardens. 

MARY  [proudly~\. 

I  will  not  have  it  so. 
[Returns  to  the  seat.] 

JUDAS.  While  there  is  Rome 

There  must  be  tears. 

PHILIP.  But  not  in  Mary's  garden. 

Say  that  I  speak  the  truth,  O  Caiaphas. 

CAIAPHAS.     Now  by  the  Temple,  Philip,  you  are 

right ; 

For  here  are  forces  that  will  wrest  from  Rome 
Her  power  to  hurt  the  world.     Rome !     How 

that  name 

Knells  all  our  pride,  our  faith  in  Him  who  sits 
High  on  the  circle  of  the  turning  stars! 
Has  He  forgotten  us?     Is  there  no  voice 
Out  of  these  many  sounds  to  speak  that  word 
Which  shall  call  hither  from  the  ends  of  earth 
The   seed   of  Abraham?      Yea,  I  am   one 
Who  is  not  shaken  by  the  wind  of  doubt 
That  God  hath  ceased  to  care  for  Israel. 
He  waits  for  men  who  are  within  His  hands 


30  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

Like  arrows  ready  for  the  bending  bow — 
Think  you  that  He  is  never  touched  by  hate? 
Why  then  Gehenna  for  His  enemies? 
By  all  the  torment  of  the  ever-damned! 
He  serves  God  most  who  feeds  eternal  hate 
Within  his  heart ;  therefore  I  pledge  you  this : 
Hate  in  all  hearts  against  the  Scarlet  Whore 
Of  Babylon ! 

YOUNG  MEN  [with  a  shout]. 
A  Caiaphas ! 

JUDAS.  Oh,  said! 

We  will  not  cease  to  hate  until  her  brow 
Has  made  a  furrow  in  the  dust,  so  deep 
That  from  the  soil  made  moist  by  many  tears 
Shed  from  her  sorrow  and  her  shame,  a  tree 
From  Jesse's   root  shall  grow   and  spread  its 

branches 
Over  the  earth. 

PHILIP.  Is  it  enough  to  hate? 

Where  is  your  army?    Or  will  you  seduce 
With  wooing  words  and  odorous  oils  and  balms 
Yonder  fair  lady — Queen   of  Babylon? 

MARY  [nestling  among  the  pillows.] 
Now,  Philip,  are  you  musical. 

YOUNG  MEN  [with  lifted  hands.] 

Philip! 

JUDAS.    We  will  make  war. 

PHILIP.  So,  on  a  day,  the  dove 

Cooed  to  the  hawk. 

JUDAS.  But  there  are  men  in  thousands. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  31 

PHILIP.    As  there  are  fishes  in  the  sea,  or  stones 

Along   the   shore. 
CAIAPHAS.  Fishes  are  caught  with  nets, 

And  stones  are  gathered  by  the  hand. 
PHILIP.  The  net — 

Show  me  the  net. 
CAIAPHAS.  Four  strands  but  make  a  mesh, 

Yet  from  one  mesh  the  knots  are  multiplied 

Until  the  fisher  casts  and  there  are  fish. 
PHILIP.     You,   Caiaphas,   are   in   the   mood   for 

riddles. 

CAIAPHAS.     I  learn  the  play  of  words  from  you. 
We  four 

Are  twined  together  by  an  oath 

MARY.  The  Mesh ! 

CAIAPHAS.    Are  we  not  bound  by  such  a  love  for 
land, 

Kindred  and  tongue  that  we  are  as  a  mesh 

Among  the  many  in  a  fisher's  net? 
PHILIP.    Ay,  that  we  are. 
CAIAPHAS.  God  is  the  fisherman — 

Let  Israel  together  be  His  net. 
PHILIP.    It  takes  a  weary  time  to  weave  a  net. 
CAIAPHAS.     Not  when  the  many  weavers  are  as 

one. 

MARY.    Oh,  that  we  were  as  one! 
PHILIP.  And  we  are  not — 

They  play  at  dream,  Mary,  they  play  at  dream. 
MARY.     Judas  and  Caiaphas? 


32  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

PHILIP.  Like  children,  they, 

Pretending  this,  pretending  that,  the  while 

Rome  feeds  her  children  on  the  fat  of  Judah. 
CAIAPHAS.    Not  so:  the  city  is  awake  at  sound 

Of  one  whose  cry  is  that  of  Debora. 
MARY.    Your  voice? 

PHILIP.  Guess  at  the  man  of  Kerioth. 

MARY  [looking  at  Judas]. 

'Tis  never  louder  than  a  sigh. 
CAIAPHAS.  A  voice 

Speaks  at  the  Jordan. 
MARY.  John? 

CAIAPHAS.  So  you  have  said. 

PHILIP.     The  hairy  man  of  Carmel  come  again? 

Boom!  Boom!  Bang! — there  is  a  prophet  for 

you! 

JUDAS.    You  should  see  how  the  people  follow  him. 
CAIAPHAS.     They  come  from  out  all  Jewry  unto 

him. 

JUDAS.    And  eager  for  his  word. 
CAIAPHAS.  They  bend  to  him, 

As  reeds  before  the  wind. 
PHILIP  [laughing]. 

A  gusty  wind. 
JUDAS   [angrily]. 

Mocker ! 

PHILIP.    A  wind  among  the  reeds ! 
JUDAS.  A  prophet! 

PHILIP.    Hail  to  the  captain  and  his  host  of  reeds ! 

Tremble,  Tiberias! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  33 

CAIAPHAS.  Yet  he  who  moves 

Men  by  the  power  of  his  passioned  word 
Can  split  a  throne  asunder  with  that  sound. 

MARY.     What  is  a  prophet? 

PHILIP.  Wind  among  the  reeds ! 

YOUNG  MEN   [with  laughter^. 
A  merry  Philip! 

JUDAS.  One  within  whose  heart 

All  music  sings  and  love  is  found  complete; 
Who  measures  in  himself  the  utter  man; 
Who  is  more  gentle  than  a  baby's  mouth 
Upon  its  mother's  breast,  and  yet  can  show 
The  hardness  and  the  edge  of  scimiters 
Against  oppression :  such  a  man  is  John. 

MARY  [with  scorn]. 

You  talk  like  his  disciple. 

JUDAS.  No ;  I  wait 

Messias ! 

MARY.     Why  wait? 

JUDAS.  John  announces  him. 

MARY.     And  so  deceives  you,  while  the  hand  of 

Rome 
Gathers  more  grapes  from  Judah's  vineyard. 

PHILIP.  Reeds 

For  fighters  and  a  wind  to  captain  them! 

JUDAS.    Messias  is  to  come,  and  when  he  comes 
Rome  will  be  as  the  dust  behind  his  feet. 

CAIAPHAS.     It  is   thus  written  in  the  Oracles. 

MARY.     Lean  not  so  hard  on  parchment  prophe- 
cies, 


34  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

But  find  the  Oracle  within  your  hearts. 

Now  is  the  time  for  living  men  to  rise 

And  shake  a  banner  over  all  the  world. 
YOUNG  MEN.    The  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah — 

hail! 

JUDAS.    This  will  Messias  do. 
MAEY.  Then  be  Messias  ! 

PHILIP.     Judas  Iscariot,  you  have  been  named 

By  true  prophetic  lips.    Faith!  if  God  speak 

To  men,  how  better  than  with  Mary's  mouth? 

If  so,  then  I  am  now  for  prophecy. 
JUDAS  [starting  back]. 

You  would  name  me  Messias? 
MARY.  I  have  said. 

CAIAPHAS.     If  you  despise  the  Oracles  of  God, 

How  can  you  win  the  people  who  are  bound 

By    adoration    of   a   holy    book? 
MARY.      Give  them  a  man — they  will  forget  the 

book. 

CAIAPHAS.     John's  way  is  best.     He  quotes  the 
Oracles. 

The  people  understand  and  follow  him. 
MARY.      Do   you  believe   those   ancient   rolls   of 

words  ? 

CAIAPHAS.    Is  not  a  people's  life  within  the  past? 
MARY.     Only  when  they  are  idle  or  afraid, 

As  now;  give  them  the  living  Oracle. 
JUDAS  [drawing  near}. 

Mary,  you  waste  our  time  with  many  words. 

Can  you  not  see  that  our  redemption  comes 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  35 

Only  through  God's  eternal  Man  whom  John 
Now  prophesies? 

MARY  [starting  in  anger  from  the  seat}. 

Beelzebub  torment 

You  with  his  flies!     See  Caiaphas  the  priest 
Match  Ms  blue  ephod  with  a  coat  of  hair, 
And  Judas  make  obeisance  to  a  voice! 
I  say  'tis  not  in  pious  posturings 
With  ragged  beggars  at  a  river's  brim, 
That  Judah's  freedom  will  be  won  from  Rome; 
But  by  the  presence  of  a  mighty  man 
At  head  of  armies  like  a  cedar  grove 
In  thousands  through  the  vale  of  Lebanon. 
How  Rome  would  laugh  to  see  your  conqueror 
Armoured  with  camel's  hair  before  a  host 
Of  lean  and  leprous  beggars! 

PHILIP.  And  the  blind — 

Do  not  forget  the  blind !    What  arrow-shafts 
Shot   from  their  bows   would  lay   the  legions 

down, 

Like  barley  underneath  the  sickles!     Oh, 
A  sight  to  greet  Leonidas ! 

MARY  [stamping  her  foot]. 

And  this 

From  Caiaphas — the  priest  who  dreamed 
Of  lifting  ancient  Zion  to  the  sun! 

CAIAPHAS   [passionately]. 

Lifting  her  higher  than  the  sun — beyond 
The  utmost  star  within  the  firmament! 
[With  uplifted  hand.] 


36  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem, 

Let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning! 

YOUNG  MEN  AND  MAIDENS.  Zion ! 

MARY  [fo  Caiaphas^. 

Then  by  your  hand  that  supplicates  the  sky, 
Be  quit  of  prophets. 

JUDAS.  John  is  not  a  man 

To  be  forgotten. 

MARY.  Not  while  many  words 

Keep  him  remembered;  let  him  pass  away 
In  silence  lest  his  presence  make  you  mad. 
You  call  him  prophet?    Well,  and  what  of  that! 
Are  you  all  slaves  to  offices  and  names? 
Forget  these  titles  that  were  framed  of  old, 
And  be  yourselves  their  true  significance — • 
Prophet?  a  mouther  of  rude,  roaring  cries 
That  give  expression  unto  sickly  thoughts ! 
For  there  you  have  the  prophet :   One  who  bawls 
What  common  men  have  thought — the  poten- 
tate 

Of  parables  that  are  the  ghosts  of  words 
Long   dead   and   waiting   for   a  burial. 
Judas,  I  would  have  you  create  new  names, 
New  meanings,  thoughts,  dreams,  aspirations, 

hopes, 

And  so  lead  men  out  of  their  slavery — 
Their  cringing  to  the  yoke  tradition  binds 
On  coward-necks — to  such  a  place  and  time 
Where  altars,  oracles,  and  covenants 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  37 

CAIAPHAS  [w  righteous  reproach]. 

You  blaspheme,  Mary ! 
MARY   [  tensely^ . 

Priest,  I  only  pray! 
CAIAPHAS.     There  must  be  temples. 
MARY.  That  there  may  be  priests? 

CAIAPHAS.    How  otherwise  would  sinful  man  know 

God? 

MARY  [with  rapture,  as  she  looks  out  on  the  sky 
and  the  city\. 

Even  as  the  birds  build  nests  and  hatch  their 
young ; 

As  every  flower  is  faithful  to  the  field; 

As  every  spring  knows  its  appointed  time. 
JUDAS.     You  beckon  back  to  groves  of  Bel  and 

Molech ! 
PHILIP.    Give  me  dear  Aphrodite  with  the  song 

Of  young  Apollo  to  the  golden  lyre. 
MARY.     Not  Syria's  dark,   templed  tyranny, 

Karnak,  nor  Capitol,  nor  Parthenon — 

That  shut  men  from  the  gladness  of  the  sky — 

Does  Mary  bid  you  build ;  for  she  would  break 

All  prison  doors. 

CAIAPHAS.  You  laugh  at  holy  things  ! 

MARY.    Where  laughter  dies  there  is  no  holiness. 
JUDAS.    Nor  shall  we  laugh  until  Messias  come. 
MARY.    He  waits  until  you  laugh. 
JUDAS.  First  must  be  tears. 

CAIAPHAS.     In  sorrow  for  our  sins. 


38  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY   [approaching  Caiaphas]. 

One  sin  alone 
Must  be  repented. 

CAIAPHAS.  That  ? 

MARY.  Unfaithfulness. 

CAIAPHAS.    Wherein  were  we  unfaithful? 

MARY.  In  your  altar. 

CAIAPHAS.      The    smoke    of    sacrifice    has    never 

ceased, 

Nor  have  we  faltered  in  our  penitence, 
These  many  years. 

MARY.  And  so  were  you  unfaithful — • 

How  God  has  waited  for  a  man  to  come, 
Telling  the  world  that  fears  Him  of  His  love! 

JUDAS.     Such  is  Messias. 

CAIAPHAS.  How  can  there  be  love, 

Until  God's  enemies  are  dead? 

MARY.  Can  God 

Have  enemies? 

JUDAS.  Oh,  when  Messias  comes, 

He  comes  triumphant  on  a  blood-red  horse, 
Lifting  a  banner;  at  his  mighty  voice 
The  earth  shall  tremble  and  the  mountains  fall, 
The  sea  roll  back  and  pour  into  the  void 
That  bounds  the  world;  the  deserts  shall  be- 
come 

Great  gardens  of  white  lilies  for  his  feet, 
The  rivers  flow  with  oil  to  his  anointing! 
John  cried:    "Make  straight  the  crooked  paths 
for  him!" 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  39 

Oh,  I  would  be  the  maker  of  those  paths; 
The  herald  of  his  presence  with  a  sword; 
The  smiter  for  Messias  on  my  shield, 
Waking  the  world  from  slumber  at  my  call: 
"Now    is    the    kingdom    that    was    promised 
near!" 

CAIAPHAS.    Spoken,  my  Maccabeus ! 

YOUNG  MEN.  Maccabeus! 

PHILIP.     Ranted  like  any  John  in  camel-skin! 

MARY.     Like  any  scribe,  loving  long  words  that 

make 
A  double  meaning! 

JUDAS.  Come  with  me  to  John. 

MARY.     Nay,  Judas. 

JUDAS.  Come  and  you  will  find  a  king. 

MARY.    Of  lame  and  leprous  men? 

JUDAS.  A  king  of  words, 

Throned  on  the  highest  thought  where  he  be- 
holds 

The  future  in  the  waking  dream  of  God; 
To  whom  the  moments  are  as  numbered  leaves 
Growing  forever  from  the  tree  of  life. 
Look  on  his  face,  and  you  will  see  a  man 
Above  all  other  men,  so  far  beyond 
The  love  of  self,  it  seems  the  infinite 

.     Shines    through   his    eyes    and    overflows    with 

words 
Upon  his  tongue.     Could  God  come  down  to 

earth 
And  tabernacle  in  the  form  of  flesh, 


40  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

Blinding  His  glory  with  a  mortal  veil, 
John's  body  would  suffice ;  for  God  must  choose 
The  highest  human  for  His  highest  love. 

MARY.    So  you  have  seen  Messias  in  John's  face? 

JUDAS.   Therefore  I  wait  for  John  to  show  me  him. 

MARY.    A  man  is  measured  by  the  thing  he  sees. 

JUDAS.     You  mean? 

MARY.  We  are  no  higher  than  our  thought. 

JUDAS.     A  mist  is  on  your  words. 

MARY.  Now  comes  the  sun 

To  melt  the  mist  away:  if  you  have  seen 
Messias,  who  is  also  called  the  Christ, 
Mirrored  a  moment  on  your  prophet's  face, 
The  image  of  the  true  is  in  yourself. 

JUDAS.    Mary ! 

MARY.  Look  in  your  soul  and  find  him  there ! 

CAIAPHAS.    Ah!  you  have  touched  a  truth  that  we 

must  keep 
Forever  in  the  mind. 

JUDAS.  What  do  you  mean? 

CAIAPHAS.    Christ  or  Messias  is  a  mystic  word 
Which  has  no  meaning,  save  a  hope,  a  dream, 
Purpose  and  prayer  within  a  nation's  mind, 
That  slowly  shapes  the  growing  character 
Until  within  the  womb  of  such  a  race 
Divine  men  are  conceived  and  come  to  birth. 

JUDAS  [excited^. 

Too  vague !  Too  vague !  Messias  is  the  man 
Who  comes  of  David's  line  to  David's  throne; 
A  warrior  like  David  who  will  tread 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  41 

The  wine-press   of  his   fury  and  his  wrath; 
A  lord  of  battles  who  will  seize  the  sun 
And  lift  it  like  a  torch  above  his  head, 
Calling  the  stars  together  like  a  host 
Of  levelled  spears,  the  mountains  like  a  throng 
Of  horsemen  riding  in  their  great  array ! 
From  boyhood  I  have  dreamed  this  dream  of 

Christ ; 

Have  mused  on  him  all  day  among  the  fields; 
Have  waited  for  the  moment  that  is  near. 

MARY.    I  think  you  rave. 

PHILIP.  Give  him  a  cup  of  wine — 

Or  shall  I  sing? 

ERINNA  [drawing  near  to  Philip^. 

Already  is  the  moon 

Waiting  until  the  sun  withdraws  from  day, 
To  keep  her  tryst  among  the  clustered  vines 
With  lovers  underneath  the  night,  and  we 
Grow  weary  of  these  words ;  so,  Philip,  sing. 

PHILIP.    It  is  not  easy,  maid,  to  be  a  Greek 
In  Palestine. 

ERINNA.  The  Muse  of  song  is  Joy. 

PHILIP.     Come,  comrades,  let  us  leave  this  place. 

I  need 
Much  laughter  to  accept  the  world. 

ERINNA.  Philip, 

Harp  us  for  dancing  down  to  meet  the  moon. 

YOUNG  MEN  AND  MAIDENS  [following  Ermna], 
Oh,  harp  for  us  ! 

PHILIP.  Mary,  will  you  not  come? 


42  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY.    I  wait  to  talk  with  Judas.    • 

PHILIP.  Come  with  us. 

Judas  is  drunk  with  tears. 
MARY.      .  Go  you;  I  stay. 

[The  trumpets  of  the  temple  blow^] 

Priest,  get  you  to  your  prayers. 

[She  reclines  on  the  seatJ\ 
CAIAPHAS.  We  meet,  my  friends, 

One  week  from  Sabbath  near  Bethabara. 

[He  goes  out  at  rightJ] 
PHILIP.     Ay,  John  will  prove  a  pastime — let  us 

g°- 
JUDAS.    Cease,  Philip,  from  your  idle  mockery. 

PHILIP.      Some  must  make  merry,  or  the  world 

would  be 

Sodden  with  tears.    Ho,  hand  in  hand  together ! 
I  meet  you,  Mary,  near  Bethabara. 
[Philip   strikes   a  chord  on  the  harp — at  its 

sound    the   young   men   and   maidens    clasp 

hands  and  begin  to  dance  about  the  fountain; 

he  plays  to  their  movement,  then  sings.] 

Ho  for  a  kiss  or  a  golden  crown! 

Which  would  you  have,  my  lover? 

Give  me  a  maid  when  the  sun  goes  down, 

With  the  stars  and  moon  above  her; 

Give  me  her  mouth,  you  may  keep  your  crown — 

Be  it  gold,  or  be  it  myrtle: 

For  I  know  a  lass  beyond  the  town, 

Clad   in    a    crimson   kirtle! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  43 

[With   a  final  chord  of  joy,   Philip  and  the 
others  pass  through  the  arch.~] 

MARY  [to  Judas  who  has  been  pacing  to  and  fro 

during  Philip's  song], 
I  would  that  you  ha'd  some  of  Philip's  joy. 

JUDAS    [going  slowly  towards  Mary  who  makes 

room  for  him  on  the  seat~\. 
How  can  I  laugh,  with  sorrow  everywhere? 

MARY.     What!     Sorrow  everywhere? 

JUDAS.  A  flood  of  tears 

Billows  against  the  very  mountain  peaks, 
And  no  one  builds  an  ark  to  ride  that  sea. 

MARY.     Then  let  us  build  an  ark. 

JUDAS.  We  are  too  weak. 

MARY.     Find  strength  in  love. 

JUDAS  [tenderly]. 

Our  love? 

MARY   [clapping  her  hands]. 

You  are  awake — 

How  you  have  slumbered,  Judas,  through  this 
day! 

JUDAS.     Evening  and  you  and  I  together  make 
Me  for  awhile  forgetful. 

MARY.  It  is  well; 

For  you  have  been  too  long  remote  from  me, 
And  I  have  wondered  often  in  the  night: 
Has  Judas  ceased  to  love  me? — Ah,  my  dear! 
That  was  not  ever  Mary's  way  with  men, 
Who  held  them  in  the  hollow  of  her  hand, 
Making  them  sigh  to  shadows  for  a  kiss. 


44  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

Until  you   came  upon  me,   as   the  spring 
Comes  to  the  earth  weary  of  winter  days, 
Laughter  and  love  were  frozen  in  my  heart; 
And  I  was  reckless  of  the  joy  I  slew, 
Though  women   cursed  and  called  me  harlot, 

raved 

Wildly  from  door  to  door  and  whispered  words 
Behind  their  hands  in  hatred  of  my  name. 

JUDAS  [smiling  and  taking  Marys  hands], 
Women   are  envious,  my  Magdalene, 
Knowing  you  are  more  beautiful  than  they. 

MAKY.     They  call  me  sorceress. 

JUDAS  [mocking]. 

Unkind!  Unkind! 

MARY.    You  laugh  at  me? 

JUDAS.  Dear  one,  a  moment  past 

I  was  rebuked  for  tears. 
[He  draws  her  to  him.'] 

MARY  [her  head  on  his  breast]. 

Judas,  my  love! 

JUDAS.    Always  your  love. 

MARY.  Beyond  all  other  love? 

JUDAS.    More  than  my  adoration  of  this  land; 
More  than  my  hatred  of  the  men  who  plough 
Earth  with  us ! 

MARY.  Yet  you  still  delay  the  time 

Of  our  espousal. 

JUDAS.  Only  till  Christ  comes. 

MARY  [freeing  herself  from  his  embrace]. 
That  word  is  like  a  torch  to  kindle  flame 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  45 

Of  anger  in  my  heart ! 
JUDAS.  What  sudden  wind 

Blackens   my   crystal  fountain  of  delight? 
MARY.     The  name — the  name — I  hate  it! 
JUDAS.  Hate  a  name? 

MARY.     As  you  hate  Rome. 
JUDAS  [in  high  exultance]. 

Who  bears  that  name  will  go 

From  strength  to  strength  until  Tiberius 

Creeps  like  a  dog  behind  his  chariot. 
MARY.    Then  take  that  name  and  I  will  hold  it  up, 

Like  any  festal  goblet,  to  the  world, 

Pledging  the  Man  of  Kerioth;  or  else 

I  dash  it  to  the  ground  and  with  my  heel 

Grind  each  frail  fragment  into  common  dust — 

I  will  not  have  you  fettered  with  a   lie! 

[Starts  in  anger  to  her  feet;  Judas  rises  and 

takes  her  hand^] 

JUDAS.    Mary,  you  are  like  other  women  in  your 
love — 

Blinded  because  of  its  white  radiance. 

Can  you  not  see  that  I  am  not  the  man 

To  do  this  thing? 
MARY.  Love  makes  of  every  man 

A  Christ  to  women. 
JUDAS.  Yea,  and  love  gives  men 

The   hunger   that   Christ    only   satisfies. 

Come,  sit  with  me  and  let  me  tell  a  tale 

No  other  ears  have  heard. 

[He  leads  Mary  back  to  the  seat.~\ 


46  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY  [leaning  against  his  shoulder]. 

A  tale  of  love? 

JUDAS.    A  love  like  that  which  only  angels  know. 

MARY   [smiling  up  at  him]. 

There,  you  are  wrong,  for  we  are  mortal  flesh. 

JUDAS.    Not  ours,  O  Heart! 

MARY  [petulantly], 

Deafness  descends  on  me. 

JUDAS.     From  boyhood  I  have  dreamed  a  dream 
of  Christ. 

MARY  [sullenly']. 

And  still  you  dream. 

JUDAS.  It  came  first  unto  me 

In  Nazareth. 

MARY.  Oh,  read  the  proverb  well : 

"Can  any  good  come  out  of  Nazareth?" 

JUDAS.    One  day  I  travelled  down  from  Kerioth 
And  came  to  Nazareth. 

MARY   [indifferently]. 

And  there  you  slept? 

JUDAS.     Apart  from  my  good  father's  company, 
I  rode  in  joy  of  idling  on  the  road 
That  whispered  to  the  hedges  of  the  day 
When  Saul  drove  back  the  broken  Philistines, 
Or,  when  young  David  brought  Goliath's  head, 
Triumphant  to  Jerusalem.     Each  mile 
Was  hallowed  by  the  feet  of  holy  men 
Who  lived  on  earth  and  proved  that  heaven  is 

near. 
So,  dreaming,  I  looked  up,  and  lo!  a  lad 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  47 

Like  to  myself  in  years,  but  very  tall 
And  com'ely,  called  across  a  barley  field: 
"David  and  Jonathan  once  walked  this  way." 
Halting  my  horse,  I  answered  swift  to  him: 
"Hail,  Daniel!     Thou  hast  read  aright  my 

dream." 

And  he:    "Nay,  there  was  that  upon  your  face 
Which  told  the  secret ;  and  I  also  dream." 
"Then  is  the  love  of  those  immortal  friends 
Blended  again  in  us,"  I  cried;  "for  he 
Who  reads  my  heart  already  has  my  heart!" 
"Have  I  your  heart?"  he   challenged.      "Yea, 

you  have," 

I  answered,  leaping  from  my  horse  to  meet 
His  hand  across  the  hedge  of  blossomed  thorn. 

MARY  [interested], 

How  very  sudden  is  the  way  of  youth! 

JUDAS.    Yea,  like  our  love  when  first  I  looked  on 
you! 

MARY.    Now  you  have  made  me  glad. 

JUDAS.  Like  you  the  tale? 

MARY  [nestling  against  his  shoulder]. 
Oh,  I  am  greedy  of  each  little  word 
That  tells  of  you ! — Say  on ;  I  like  the  lad. 

JUDAS.    Him  you  shall  see  one  day. 

MARY.  Where  does  he  live? 

JUDAS.     Capernaum. 

MARY.  'Tis  near  Bethabara? 

JUDAS.    Come  with  us  to  the  river,  and  then  meet 
My  Carpenter. 


48  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY  [with  changed  voice\. 

Oh,  I  had  thought  of  him 
As  one  aloof  and  fingering  a  sword 
Until  you  called  him  bravely  to  your  side! 
JUDAS.    His  tongue  is  like  a  sword. 
MARY  [impatiently'}. 

Another   John ! 
JUDAS.     There  is  no  thunder  in  his  voice,  whose 

word  • 

Cuts  to  the  marrow  of  what  men  dispute. 
MARY.    The  day  of  dull-eyed  teachers  is  at  end — 
The  world  needs  men. — So  back  and  be  a  boy 
Along  the  thorn-hedged  road  to  Nazareth. 
JUDAS.    That  day  we  talked  of  many  things,  and 

since 
Have  talked:  How  from  the  chosen  seed  must 

spring 
The  world's  Man  who  will  walk  at  ease  with 

God,  . 

Revealing  Him  who  sits  upon  the  stars 
And  makes  of  earth  a  footstool;  how  the  day 
Of  Eden  will  return,  and  every  man 
Sit  under  his  own  fig  tree  in  the  light 
That  never  darkens ;  how  the  graves  will  give 
Back   their  dead;  how   the  noise  of  war  will 

cease, 

And  with  the  sighing  of  the  sorrowful 
All  things  shall  pass  that  wet  the  world  with 
tears. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  49 

MARY    [caught   by  the  vision,   clasps  her  hands 
upon  her  knees  and  looks  away  from  Judas}. 
Judas,  I  would  go  now  to  find  our  garden. 

JUDAS.    First  must  Christ  come. 

MARY.  We'll  find  him  in  a  garden. 

JUDAS.    You  mean 

MARY.  The  garden  of  all  lovers;  there 

Only  can  Christ  be  found:  for  now  I  see 
That  Christ  is  love — the  living  flame  of  love 
Kindled  by  comrade-souls  who  meet  on  earth, 
Remember  in  the  meeting  of  their  eyes 
That  moment  called  eternity,  ere  time 
Drew  them  asunder  from  the  bliss  of  heaven 
And  hurled  them  down  the  gulf  of  aching  days. 
Oh,  time  is  the  arch  enemy  of  God — 
The  serpent  who  wiles  woman  from  her  joy, 
Fills    earth    for   man    with    thistles    and   with 

thorns ! 

Time  is  the  cross  on  which  dear  love  is  nailed, 
And  love  is  Christ  who  from  that  lifted  cross 
Whispers  to  lovers :    "Patience !   We  prevail." 

JUDAS.    Christ  is  God's  Man,  and,  by  the  word  of 

John 
His  coming  is  at  hand. 

MARY  [dreamily]. 

I  hear  the  birds 
Twitter  at  twilight,  calling  from  a  garden. 

JUDAS.     And  I  hear  laughter  shaking  round  the 

world — 
Ransomed  by  our  high  Captain  of  the  host. 


50  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY  [with  outspread  hands~\. 

O  red  and  yellow  blossoms !    O  green  globes 
Of  little  grapes  that  cluster  on  a  wall! 

JUDAS.    I'll  be  the  trumpet  of  the  Lord,  to  blow 
Hither  the  thrice  ten  thousand  spears  of  Dan, 
Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  with  the  bows 
Of  Benjamin,  from  every  part  of  earth 
Where  the  Dispersion  are;  and  they  will  come 
To  Armageddon  like  a  storm  of  sand! 

MARY    [rising  and  walking  down  to  front  with 
open  arms^. 

0  magic  of  white  marble,  where  our  home 
Stands  in  a  garden ! 

JUDAS  [following  her}. 

Mary,  tempt  me  not! 

MARY  [turning  and  clasping  Judas'], 

And  we  will  make  an  arbour  out  of  vines 
Trained  from  the  roots  to  shelter  from  the  sun ! 

JUDAS.     Not  till  Messias  comes ! 

MARY.  There  will  be  children ! 

JUDAS.     God,  keep  me  to  my  vision! 

MARY  [starting  back  in  anger]. 

You  forswear 
Our  love? 

JUDAS.  Now  in  the  holy  name  of  Christ, 

1  pledge  myself  to  such  a  love  of  you, 
That  all  the  music  of  wild,  mating  birds; 
The  harping  of  the  wind  among  the  trees; 
The  sound  of  water  singing  to  the  shore; 
The  timbrels  and  the  dulcimers  of  dawn, 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  51 

And  echoing  of  laughter  over  fields — 
What  time  the  reapers  gather  up  the  corn ; 
Shall  fail  the  joy  of  our  betrothal  song, 
When  Christ,  the  Bridegroom,  gathers  to  the 

feast 

The  lovers  who  have  tarried  for  his  day. 
[He  kneels  at  Mary's  feet.] 
MARY  [looking  down  at  him  in  tears']. 
I  am  a  woman — love  me — that  is  Christ! 


ACT  II 

SCENE. — Near  Bethabara  at  the  River  Jordan. 
One  week  later. 

At  rear  are  mountain  ranges.  Above  one 
jagged,  wild  peak  hangs  4he  red  disk  of  the 
setting  sun.  Terraces  of  splintered  rock 
descend  to  the  Jordan — winding  among  deep 
gorges  to  a  ford  where  the  tall  bulrushes 
are  visible. 

At  left  rear  is  a  group  of  men  and  women, 
indistinct  and  far. 

Red  and  yellow  granite  boulders  occupy 
the  spaces  at  right  and  left. 

A  plain  with  here  and  there  a  palm  tree, 
along  which  people  come  and  go,  fills  the 
foreground. 

At  front  centre  a  granite  boulder  stands 
under  a  sycamore  tree. 

A  Priest,  a  Levite,  a  Pharisee  are  gath- 
ered near  the  rock  in  earnest  conversation. 
Breaking  in  upon  their  speech  are  heard  the 
cries  of  the  Vendors  calling  their  wares  of 
dates,  figs,  wine,  bread,  carob-pods  and 
honey. 

At-  intervals  the  voice  of  John,  rising 
52 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  53 

above  the  murmur  of  the  crowd,  and  thwined 
by  distance,  is  clearly  audible  like  an  echo. 

WINE  VENDOR   [singing']. 

Wine  for  priests  and  masters 
In  a  stoppered  jar — 
Drink,  ye  turbaned  fasters, 
From  the  dewy  jar — 
Drink  and  find  forgetting 
Of  things  as  they  are! 

Though  the  sun  be  setting, 

Twinkle  soon,  O  star! 

And  until  to-morrow, 

Ye  may  travel  far 

From  your  constant  sorrow 

With  wine  from  a  jar. 

OTHERS.  Ho,  ye  hungry! 

Ho,  ye  hungry! 
Carobs !     Carobs ! 
Dates  and  figs! 
Bread   and  honey. 

VOICE  OF  JOHN.     The  Kingdom  is  at  hand! 
A  PRIEST.  Beelzebub's? 

A  LEVITE.    Well  said!  for  yonder  is  a  swarm  of 
flies. 

[Levi,  a  publican,  approaches  from  the  crowd.] 
LEVI.    'Ware  lest  they  sting  you,  Priest! 
PRIEST.  Lend  me  your  hide — 

Nothing  is  thicker  than  a  publican's! 


54  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

LEVITE.     Ha !  ha  !  ho !  ho ! 

LEVI.  You  laugh  in  antiphon, 

And  like  a  Levite  to  your  master's  wit. 
BREAD  VENDOR.     Bread,  my  masters,  won't  you 

buy? 

Life  is  in  each  golden  crust; 
Eat,  and  you  will  never  die, 
Fast,  and  lo,  'tis  dust  to  dust! 

PHARISEE.      What   ribald,   Gentile   blasphemy   is 
this? 

LEVI.     The  priest  and  levite  laughing,  Pharisee? 

PHARISEE.     The  singer  and  his  song. 

PRIEST.  He  mocks  the  fast ! 

SCRIBE.     All  Israel  goes  whoring  after  noise — 
God  curse  Tiberius ! 

LEVI.  Gently,  young  Scribe, 

The  lightest  whisper  of  our.  little  world 
Breathes  in  the  ear  of  Caesar;  you  may  find 
Your  tongue  the  shorter  for  that  spoken  word. 

SCRIBE.    I  take  no  measure  of  a  Publican. 

LEVI.     So  long  you  Scribes  have  tailored  to  the 

Law, 
You  have  no  skill  to  make  another's  coat. 

PRIEST.    .He  has  no  heart  to  fit  unblemished  fleece 

•    Upon  a  wolf! 

LEVITE.  Oh,  said,  my  master,  said! 

PHARISEE   [loftily] .  [wolves 

Yea,    such    are    Publicans  —  wolves  —  hungry 
Clad  like  the  guileless  sheep  for  tearing  them. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  55 

LEVI.    And  what  are  Pharisees? 

VENDOR.  Dry  carob  pods ! 

LEVI  [to  the  Vendor]. 

Hither  and  take  a  shekel  for  that  word — 

Levite,    why    don't    you    laugh? — Dry    carob. 

pods! 

VOICE  OF  JOHN.    Repent ! 

PRIEST.  That  is  the  word — only 

the  blood 

Of  sacrifice  on  altars  can  appease 

The  wrath  of  God  against  our  common  sin. 
PHARISEE.    And  fasts — do  not  forget  the  fasts — 
how  else 

Can  we  be>  purified  except  by  fasts 

And  payment  of  all  tithes? 
SCRIBE.  Learning  the  Law 

Must  company  the  fast  and  sacrifice — 

Ay,  to  the  very  tittle  and  the  jot. 
PRIEST.    A  river  wide  as  Jordan,  and  of  blood 

Shall  pour  down  from  the  Temple  for  our  sins. 
PHARISEE.     And  we  will  make  more  of  our  fasts 

and  tithes. 
SCRIBE.    And  every  child  from  Beersheba  to  Dan 

Shall  count  the  jots  and  tittles  of  the  Law. 
PRIEST.     Then  would  Messias  come ! 
PHARISEE.  How  can  he  come 

When  brawlers  like  the  Baptist  make  a  noise 

At  which  the  people  gape  and  nod  and  dance? 
SCRIBE.     Hale  him  to  Herod! 
LEVI.  Zealous  Scribe! 


56  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

SCRIBE.  Worldling ! 

LEVI.    The  world  is  all  I  have. 

SCRIBE.  There  is  another. 

LEVI.    Where  ? 

SCRIBE.  Tophet. 

LEVI.  When  do  you  return  to  it? 

A  WOMAN   [approaching  from  left], 

Sirs,  where  is  John? 
LEVI.  Yonder. 

PHARISEE  [covering  his  face  with  his  cloak~\. 

Hence,  harlot,  hence! 
WOMAN.     Flint-hearted  Pharisee! 
PHARISEE.  Hence,  hence,  I  say ! 

PRIEST.    Daughter  of  shame! 
SCRIBE.  Polluter  of  the  air! 

WOMAN    [stamping  her  foot~\. 

God  send  a  famine  to  rid  all  the  world 

Of  such  as  you,  Scribe,  Priest  and  Pharisee! 
LEVI  [lightly]. 

And  yet  would  we  be  left 

WOMAN  [with  meaning]. 

To  laugh  and  love? 
LEVI.    You  lay  love  on  a  shelf  of  merchandise, 

While  laughter  is  a  sound  of  beaten  gongs. 
WOMAN.    Since  men  are  pleased  to  set  a  price  on 
love, 

To  cheapen  laughter  with  a  cup  of  wine, 

Must  women  go  to  market. 
LEVI.  Whence  came  you? 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  57 

WOMAN.    Out  of  a  woman's  cradle. 

PHARISEE.  Cursed  the  hand 

That  rocked  it ! 

WOMAN.  Do  you  curse  your  mother's  hand? 

PHARISEE.    Now  by  the  pillars  of  the  Porch,  may 
you 

Burn  in  Gehenna  for  this  blasphemy! 
WOMAN.    All  mothers  meet  in  Eve. 
PRIEST.  From  Eve  all  sin 

Flows  forth  on  man — harlot,  you  are  accursed! 
SCRIBE  [intoning']. 

"In  sin  my  mother  hath  conceived  me." — 

So  saith  the  Psalmist. 
WOMAN  [passionately']. 

Take  me  to  a  man 

Who  has  not  whispered  in  his  heart  that  lie, 

And  I  will  be  the  prophet  to  declare 

Before  the  world — Messias  is  at  hand! 
PRIEST.    He  will  consume  the  like  of  you  as  chaff! 
SCRIBE.     So  reads  the  word  of  Prophet  Malachi. 
WOMAN  [to  Scribe]. 

Peace,  horn  of  ink ! 

SCRIBE.  By  Aaron's  rod — 

WOMAN.  A  pen? 

LEVI   [laughing']. 

God's  arm!  and  longer  than  a  weaver's  beam — 

Mate  to  Goliath's 

WOMAN.  Threatening  the  world 

Until  a  David  meet  it  with  a  stone. 


,58  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

LEVI.    And  so  Goliath  is  a  scribe  who  holds 

Men  in  forever  awe  before  his  pen — 

A  shield  the  written  word? 
WOMAN.  Shatter  the  shield, 

And  rid  men  of  Goliath,  with  a  stone! 
VOICE  OF  JOHN.    Out  of  a  stone  God  can  create 

a  Son! 
WOMAN.     O  hear  what  John  saith!     I  would  go 

to  him. 
SCRIBE.     Go,  harlot!     You  will  find  your  sisters 

there. 
PRIEST.    Flow  into  yonder  pool  where  all  the  filth 

Gathers  for  John. 
PHARISEE.  Yea,  go  and  be  baptised 

With  publicans  and  sinners. 
SCRIBE.  What  a  bath 

For  cleansing  souls ! 
LEVI  [taking  the  woman  by  the  hand]. 

Come. 
WOMAN  [looking  up  mto  his  face']. 

What!  you  take  my  hand? 
LEVI.    Mine  is  as  soiled. 

WOMAN.  Though  these  have  taunted  me? 

LEVI.     Therefore  I  take  your  hand. 
WOMAN.  I  am  a  harlot. 

LEVI.    And  I  God's  fool! 
PHARISEE   [with  a  gesture  of  contempt], 

You  are  defiled  of  her. 
LEVI  [to  the  Pharisee  and  others], 

I  am  a  Publican — one  who  has  lost 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  59 

Faith  in  all  temples;  only  this  remains: 
Hope  that  the  world  will  yet  know  happiness 
Through  love. 

PHARISEE.  Love  for  the  Law? 

SCRIBE.  The  written  word? 

PRIEST.    Offer  a  sacrifice — all  other  love 
Is  an  abomination  unto  God! 

LEVI  [going  towards  the  river  with  the  woman]. 
Love  that  is  less  than  gentle  to  the  weak 
Masks  hate,  though  hate  be  loyalty  to  God — 
Such  loyalty  would  sell  him  for  a  shekel. 
[He  and  the  woman  are  lost  among  the  crowd 
at  the  left.] 

WINE  VENDOR  [re-appearing]. 

Wine  is  like  woman — a  sip  and  a  song, 
And  red  of  the  rose  on  the  mouth. 
Like  you  the  savour?  drink  deep  and  drink  long 
Till  death  end  your  day  with  a  drouth! 

SOLDIER.     Ho  there,  you  bard  of  Bacchus,  give 

me  wine! 

WINE  VENDOR  [a  Greek  boy,  of  slight  but  grace- 
ful build  and  tanned  by  the  sun  and  wind], 
Ay,  Master. 

[Pours  from  a  slender  jar  into  an  earthen 
cup.] 

This  is  not  a  thirsty  throng, 
So  drink  my  flagon  empty. 
PRIEST   [to  Scribe  and  Pharisee]. 

Let  us  go. 


60  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

SCEIBE.     And  hearken  unto  John? 

PHARISEE.  'Tis  well  to  keep 

Hand  on  these  movements. 

PRIEST.  Yea,  the  people  seem 

Like  children  dancing  in  the  market  place 
To  every  piper. 

PHARISEE.  We  must  set  the  tune 

And  make  them  dance  to  what  their  rulers  play, 
Or  there'll  be  insurrection  under  John. 
{They  mingle  with  the  crowd  J] 

SOLDIER  [to  the  wine  seller^. 

What  hell-for-trouble  do   those  jackals  plot? 

WINE  VENDOR.     Now  'tis  the  prophet,  next  day 
this  or  that. 

SOLDIER    [returning  the  wine  cup~\. 

Pest  on  these  fellows !    Must  a  soldier  run, 
Like  any  slave  set  over  playing  boys, 
Hither  and  yon  to  regulate  their  pranks 
And  keep  them  in  some  order,  lest  they  tear, 
Scratch,  bite  or  otherwise  harm  one  another? 

WINE  VENDOR.   Drink  and  forget  that  you  are  not 

in  Rome, 

Among  the  maids  or  at  the  Colosseum — 
Two  cups  of  this  red  wine  are  in  one  farthing. 

SOLDIER  [taking  the  second  cup  and  lifting  it  up~\. 
Caesar ! 

VOICE  OF  JOHN.    The  axe  is  at  the  root ! 

SOLDIER  [lowering  the  cup  and  listening']. 

The  Vine? 
Bacchus  forbid! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  61 

[Raises  the  cup  and  drmks.~] 
WINE  VENDOR.  An  axe,  a  flail,  a  fan — 

Ha,  prophet!  Yonder  folk  know  all  these  well; 

But  why  not  add  a  sword,  a  spear  and  shield? 
SOLDIER  [returning  the  wine  cup]. 

He  speaks  to  woodmen — shepherds,  vine  dress- 
ers 

And  all  the  ilk  of  those  who  drive  the  plough — 

What  do  these  peasants  know  of  soldier  craft? 

Mars !  'tis  a  race  of  rats  and  moles  and  mice — 

They  are  not  fit  for  slaves,  yet  turbulent 

Past  reason. 

WINE  VENDOR.  Take  another  cup  of  wine. 

SOLDIER  [throwing  a  coin  on  the  platter]. 

Here  is  your'  farthing,  lad — another  cup 

Might  make  one  over-hasty  with  crowd, 

And  that  is  not  the  discipline  of  Rome. 

[The  Soldier  carelessly  shoulders  his  way 
through  the  crowd  at  left  and  is  lost  to  sight 
among  the  people  who  more  and  more  gather 
near  the  river.  The  Wine  Vendor  follows, 
singing  as  he  goes.  The  calls  of  the  Vendors 
grow  fainter.  The  murmur  of  the  people  at 
the  river  blends  mto  a  rhythmic  sound  as  of 
wind. 

Two  lovers,  Obed  and  Ada,  enter  at  right, 
coming  through  the  rocky  defiles,  and  ap- 
proach the  sycamore  tree.  His  right  arm  is 
about  her  waist.  He  points  to  the  rock  be- 
neath the  tree.~\ 


62  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

OBED.     Rest  here  a  moment,  ere  we  go  to  John. 
ADA.    I  am  not  weary,  walking  at  your  side. 
OBED.     Was  it  not  noon  when  we  went  forth  to- 
gether ? 

ADA.    Noon  never  was  so  near  to  night,  my  love. 
OBED.     All  distances  of  time  and  place  are  lost 

When  we  touch  hands. 

[He  lifts  her  to  the  top  of  the  rock.^ 
ADA.  Then  never  let  mine  go, 

And  we  will  mock  the  moon  and  dare  the  sun 

And  gather  stars  like  berries  in  a  basket. 
OBED  [springing  to  her  side  with  a  laugh"]. 

Time  will  melt  like  a  snow  flake  on  a  leaf 

When  we  are  wed. 

ADA.  That  is  eternity. 

OBED.     Ay,  where  love  is  complete. 
ADA.  Then  heaven  must  be 

Two  lovers  underneath  a  sycamore. 
OBED.    And  so  a  rock  becomes  the  jasper  throne 

Set  in  the  sky. 

VOICE  OF  JOHN.     Heaven  is  at  hand! 
ADA.  'Tis  here — 

John  is  a  prophet. 
OBED.  Yet  he  has  no  maid — 

How  can  he  prophesy? 

ADA.  Because  the  world 

Is  full  of  lovers  and  he  knows  they  love — 

Could  any  prophesy  without  such  knowledge? 
OBED.   If  I  could  stand  by  yonder  stream  and  tell 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  63 

Men  of  our  love,  then  would  the  world  repent 
And  find  salvation. 

ADA.  There  would  be  no  hate 

Could  they  but  listen  to  the  tender  song 
We  learned  not  long  ago  when  we  found  love. 

OBED.   Rome  would  beat  all  her  swords  to  pruning 

hooks, 

And  Israel  would  let  her  bullocks  graze; 
For  there  would  be  no  legions,  neither  stones 
Wet  with  the  wasted  blood  of  sacrifice — 
O  world!  how  long  must  all  the  lovers  wail 
Until  their  secret  cleanse  and  make  you  glad? 

ADA.    When  one  is  born  of  lovers  like  us  twain — 

OBED  [rapturously  and  leaping  from  the  rock]. 
Messias  whom  we  seek!    Come,  let  us  go! 

ADA  [leaning  to  his  open  arms]. 

Kiss  me,  dear  love,  and  we  will  find  the  Christ ! 
[He  takes  her  in  his  arms.] 

OBED.     Ada,  if  Christ  be  anywhere  on  earth, 
Cana  will  claim  him  at  our  wedding  feast! 

ADA.   Our  wedding  feast !   Obed,  I  count  the  days ! 

[They  go   hand  in   hand   towards   the   river. 

Enter  Mary,  Judas,  Philip  and  Caiaphas.] 

MARY  [pointing  to  the  rock.] 
Let  me  rest  here  a  while. 

PHILIP.  The  sun  glares  red, 

Like  Polyphemus'  eye  upon  Ulysses, 
Ere  Night — the  furtive,  wily  Ithacan — 
Pierce  it  and  put  it  out;  yet  there  is  time 


64  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

For  loitering  beside  a  sycamore, 

Mary,  if  you  are  underneath  the  bough. 

[He  helps  her  up  the  rock.] 
JUDAS  [looking  towards  the  r'wer.~\ 

How  all  the  world  is  gone  out  after  John! 
MARY    [with  a  gesture  of  contempt]. 

Call  you  that  crowd  of  cawing  rooks  the  world? 
CAIAPHAS  [sententiously]. 

The  world  is  where  the  people  are. 
VOICE  OF  JOHN.  Repent! 

MARY.      Repent!     Now  must  I  also  change  my 

mind  ? 

JUDAS.    He  means  the  world. 
MARY.  A  world  of  cawing  rooks  ? 

They  have  no  mind  to  change — would  I  could 
change 

Yours,  Judas. 
PHILIP    [to  Mary]. 

And  I  yours. 
JUDAS.  A  sound  like  wind 

Comes  from  the  wilderness,  as  though  the  wings 

Of  Michael  beat  above  the  head  of  John, 

Announcing  that  Messias  comes  to  men. 

[A  Leper  passes  at  a  distance,  lifting  his  cry 

of  warning.] 

LEPER.    Unclean !    Unclean ! 
MARY  [shuddering.] 

Oh,  what  a  world  of  pain! 
CAIAPHAS  [angrily  to  the  leper]. 

Back  to  your  tombs! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  65 

LEPER  [pausing,  looks  at  the  priest.  He  is  a  man 
in  the  prime  of  his  days,  on  whom  the  disease 
has  yet  made  but  a  few  visible  ravages], 

Ho,  Caiaphas! 

CAIAPHAS.  Back  !  Back ! 

LEPER.     I  come  to  hear  the  prophet. 
CAIAPHAS.  To  your  tombs ! 

LEPER.    Mayhap,  O  priest,  he  will  show  me  Mes- 

sias. 
PHILIP  [to  the  leper~\. 

Messias  a  physician? 
LEPER.  He  will  lay 

Hands  on  the  sick. 

CAIAPHAS.  But  lepers  are  defiled — 

One  may  not  touch  polluted  flesh  and  be 
Without  defilement. 

LEPER.  He  who  can  make  whole 

A  leper's  body  will  not  be  afraid 
Of  what  the  Law  saith;  for  in  him  the  Law 
Finds  its  fulfilment. 
CAIAPHAS   [with  a  sneer]. 

Where  learned  you  the  Law? 
LEPER.    At  feet  of  her  from  whom  all  wise  men 

learn. 

CAIAPHAS.    You  mean  the  temple? 
LEPER.  Life! 

PHILIP  [swiftly  to  Caiaphas]. 

He  answers  you — 
Zeus!  but  he  answers  you.     Tell  me,  O  man, 


66  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

If  there  be  aught  in  leprosy  to  give 

One  wisdom. 
LEPER.  Ay,  for  lepers  are  alone, 

And  so  must  learn  to  lean  upon  themselves. 
PHILIP.      But  not  on   altars   and   that  kind   of 

thing? 
LEPER.   When  pain  makes  man  a  living  sacrifice — 

Altars  are  void  of  meaning. 
PHILIP.  Yet  you  seek 

Messias 

LEPER.  Who  will  be  the  loneliest 

Among  the  lonely. 
JUDAS  [impatiently]. 

You  are  demonized. 
MARY  [to  Judas~\. 

Let  be — I  like  to  hear  the  tomb-man  talk — 

Perchance  you   may  find   some   new   thing  to 
learn 

About  your  lord  of  lepers  and  the  like. 
LEPER   [sadly  to  Mary]. 

Woman,  whose  face  is  like  a  poppy  bud 

Lifted  above  the  green  and  tender  wheat, 

Your  beauty  is  my  banishment  to  depths 

Of  darker  loneliness. 
PHILIP  [to  the  leper']. 

You  have  a  friend, 

O  man  of  pain,  for  beauty  exiles  me. 
LEPER.    And  so  must  Lord  Messias  be  a  friend 

To  lost  and  lonely  ones. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  67 

[He  turns  and  goes  painfully  toward  the  river 
cry'mgi] 

Unclean!  Unclean! 

MARY     [a*    a    blind    minstrel,    Bartimceus,    ap- 
proaches— finding  his  way  with  a  staff]. 
Behold  another  to  the  help  of  John ! 
BARTIM^US  [stops  at  the  sound  of  Mary's  voice 
and  jumbles  for  the  psaltery  hung  at  the  side 
from  his  shoulder']. 
O  Lady,  listen  to  my  song! 
CAIAPHAS.  Away ! 

We  want  you  not. 

JUDAS.  Let  us  not  trifle  here 

With  lepers  and  with  beggars — let  us  go 
Nearer  to  John. 
MARY.  A  moment — I  would  hear 

My  minstrel. 

PHILIP.  Orpheus  out  of  Arcady ! 

JUDAS  [to  Caiaphas]. 

The  sun  is  almost  down  and  yet  we  wait — 
Missing   the   words    of  John — come   with   me, 

priest. 

MARY.    We  will  abide  here  at  the  rock  until 
You  come  with  message  of  Messias. 
[To  Bartimceus.'] 

Play! 

[As  Judas  and  Caiaphas  go  towards  the  river, 
Bartimceus  draws  near  to  Mary  and  Philip 
— striking  with  a  plectrum  the  strings  of  hi.i 
psalter •;/.] 


68  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

BARTIM^US.  How  great!  cried  the  beggar  to  the 

king; 

How  good!  sighed  the  sinner  to  the  saint ; 
How  white!  cawed  the  crow  to  the  dove's  wing: 
And  the  Lord  God  heard  their  plaint. 

Over  the  stars  where  the  white  mists  pile, 
God  leaned  and  listened  and  laughed  a  while; 
For  he  knew  that  each  was  his  own  dear  son, 
With  a  work  to  do  till  the  day  was  done! 

MARY  [moved  by  the  song]. 

Blind  minstrel,  you  have  made  me  weep. 
BARTIM^EUS  [approaching  nearer,  guided  by  the 
sound  of  Mary's  voice\. 

Lady, 

I,  too,  have  known  tears,  therefore  is  my  song. 
MARY.    How  you  have  wept  to  sing  as  you  have 

sung! 

BARTIM^US.    That,  lady,  is  the  only  way  of  song. 
PHILIP.     Nay,  there  is  laughter  on  the  lips  of 

song. 
BARTIM^EUS.     When  laughter  is  triumphant  over 

tears — 

But  some  laugh  who  have  never  wept,  and  these 
Know  not   the  goddess. 
PHILIP.  Euterpe  is  cold 

To  minstrels  who  have  only  found  the  strings, 
And  not  the  windTblown  passion  of  a  harp. 
BARTIMJSUS.     Sir,  you  have  sung. 
PHILIP.  And  I  have  also  laughed- 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  69 

BARTIM^EUS.     The  wings  of  laughter  are  besprent 
with  tears. 

PHILIP.    To  keep  them  soft  for  flight? 

BARTIM.EUS.  Ay,  otherwise, 

Life's    noon    would    harden    laughter's    lifting 

wings 
And  make  them  like  a  bat's. 

MARY.  Blind  minstrel,  come, 

Sit  underneath  the  sycamore  with  me. 

BARTIM^US  [finding  his  way  to  the  rock]. 
Lady,  your  voice  is  like  a  hall  of  harps, 
When  in  the  night  a  wind  goes  whispering 
Among  the  curtains,  and  they  call  to  him, 
So  that  by  murmur  of  a  silver  sound 
He  may  find  them. 

MARY  [as  the  minstrel  sits  at  ihe  rock~\. 

Ah,  you  have  rightly  said. 
My  heart  is  like  a  hall  of  silent  harps 
That  wake  to  sound  when  love  breathes  on  the 

strings, 

Calling  my  name.    Tell  me,  O  minstrel  man, 
How  shall  I  keep  a  lover's  feet  from  straying? 

BARTIM^US.     If  he  be  blind,  then  let  him  hear 

your  voice; 

If  he  be  deaf,  then  let  him  see  your  face; 
If  he  be  blind  and  deaf,  give  him  your  lips ; 
And  if  he  then  be  not  consumed  by  love, 
Your  love  is  dead — so,  lady,  bury  him. 

PHILIP.     A  wise  man! — Mary,  pray  put  out  my 
eyes 


70  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

That  I  may  also  see. 
MARY  [intent  upon  the  minstrel.] 

If  love  were  dead, 
My    love   would   wait    with   balms    before    his 

tomb — 

I  could  not  leave  him  lonely  on  a  hill 
Among  the  sepulchres. 

BARTIM^EUS.  If  love  would  sit 

For  long  against  a  tomb,  leaning  her  head 
Bravely  against  its  whited  wall,  oh,  then 
The  stone  would  roll  away  that  she  might  bear 
Her  balms  and  odours  to  anoint  his  feet. 
MARY.     And  though  the  feet  of  him  had  turned 

to  dust, 
The  mouth  that  once  pressed  mine,  the  eyes  that 

looked 
Long  into  mine,  though  these  had  turned  to 

dust, 

My  patient  love  would  call  each  golden  grain 
Of  that  same  dear,  divine,  dust  of  my  love 
Back  to  the  quickened  clay  becoming  flesh, 
Until  we  stood  together  in  a  dawn 
Of  lilies ! 

PHILIP.        Mary,  I  love  you  like  that. 
MARY  [tenderly  to  Philip']. 

And,  Philip,  I  the  Man  of  Kerioth. 
BARTIM^US.     Love   is   the  resurrection   and   the 

life. 

Rejoice,  O  man,  who  learned  to  laugh  through 
tears, 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  71 

That  you  are  lost  in  Mary,  and  so  find 

Yourself.     Love  is  the  great  reward,  the  sign 

Of  heaven's  most  high  approval  of  a  soul. 

When  God  is  ready  for  another  song 

To  wing  its  gladness  from  the  sky  to  earth, 

He  sends  it  to  a  lover  who  has  found 

Joy  in  the  giving  that  seeks  not  its  own. 

PHILIP.     God!  how  you  have  learned  love. 

MARY.  What  is  your  name? 

BARTIM.SUS.     Men  call  me  Bartimaeus. 

MARY.  And  your  home  ? 

BARTIM^IUS   [with  a  laugh  and  a  sweep  of  the 

strings']. 
God's  earth ! 

PHILIP.      There   are   some   rooms   of   that  same 
house  I  like  not  over  well. 

MARY.  Rooms  full  of  shadows — 

Rooms  that  are  locked  on  phantoms  of  dead 

faith. 
Dead  hope,  dead  joy,  dead  love — phantoms  that 

cry 

Through  key  holes  down  long  darkened  passage- 
ways. 

BARTIM.EUS.     My  house  is  one  that  is  not  made 

with  hands ; 

Its  rooms  are  many,  and  its  open  doors 
Shut  on  no  shadows. 

PHILIP.  House  not  made  with  hands  ? 

Then  you  have  dreamed  it,  and  I  would  not  live 
Only  in  dream. 


72  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

BARTIM^EUS.  Mine  is  no  house  of  dream 

'Tis  very  real  to  me  and  beautiful. 
O  Philip,  can  you  tell  me  how  a  bird 
Feels  on  the  nest  when  all  the  speckled  eggs 
Melt  underneath  her  heart  to  feathered  balls 
Of  chirping  hunger?     How  the  bleating  ewe 
Finds  her  three  lambs  and  calls  them  to  her 

side, 

Though  there  be  many  mothers  on  the  hill? 
That  is  their  secret  never  to  be  told — 
And  mine  the  certainty  of  things  that  eyes 
Behold  and  see  not. 

MARY  [leaning  towards  the  blind  man], 
Oh,  but  I  would  see ! 

BARTIM^US.     You  must  be  born  again — must  be 

a  child 
With  arms  of  joy  wide  open  to  the  wind. 

PHILIP.    Minstrel,  who  taught  you  that? 

BARTIM.EUS.  A  Carpenter. 

PHILIP.     I  know  a  Carpenter  and  he  is  wise. 

MARY.     Judas  knows  one,  knew  him  from  boy- 
hood, too. 

BARTIM^TJS.     Mine  lives — 

PHILIP  [quickly]. 

Where? 

BARTIM^US.  At  Capernaum. 

MARY  [eagerly]. 

The  same ! 

PHILIP.    He  built  my  villa  at  Bethsaida. 

BARTIM^EUS.     Until  I  met  him  I  was  blind. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  73 

MARY.  You  mean  ? 

BARTIM.EUS.      He  made  me  independent   of  two 

eyes 
And   taught  me  how  to   see  life  through  my 

soul. 
PHILIP.      He  who   does    that  works   more   thaVi 

miracles. 
BARTIM^US.     I  know  a  lame  man  who  has  come 

to  prize 

His  drutches  through  the  Carpenter,  and  claims 
He  walks  with  greater  joy  on  summer  roads 
Than  they  who  travel  on  their  sandaled  feet. 
PHILIP.    I  met  him  first  along  Tiberias 

Where  I  have  business  with  the  fishermen. 
BARTIM^EUS.      He  loves   to  talk  with  those  who 

toil. 

PHILIP.  .    One  day, 

As  I  stood  bargaining,  he  came  and  said : 
"Brothers,  would  you  not  rather  fish  for  men?" 
Simon,  a  great  wild  fellow  with  a  voice 
Booming  like  billows  on  wave  beaten  rocks, 
Answered:     "One   needs    a    tougher   mesh   for 

men " 

And  then  the  Carpenter:    "I  know  a  net 
That  we  will  cast  together,  son  of  Jonas." 
MARY.    What  did  he  mean? 

BARTIM^US.  Did  Simon  understand? 

PHILIP.      He   smote   his   horny   hands    together, 
cried: 


74  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

"A  net  draws  up  too  many  prickly  things, 
And  fishing,  master,  is  a  lonely  task." 

MARY.    What  said  the  Carpenter? 

PHILIP.  He  only  smiled 

And  left  the  fishermen  among  their  nets; 
f     But  I  was  forced  to  follow  after  him 
Until  we  came  unto  Capernaum. 

BARTIM^EUS.     Talked  you  with  him? 

PHILIP.  Until  we  found  his  workshop — 

There  he  began  with  chisel,  plane  and  saw, 
Singing  a  little  song  of  joy  the  while: 

My  hand  to  the  board — 
The  white  shaving  curled — 
I  think  that  my  Lord 
So  fashioned  the  world. 

My  hand  to  the  beam 
Soon  planed  to  a  spar, 
As  I  in  a  dream 
Saw  God  make  a  star! 

MARY.    He  is  a  minstrel  too. 

BARTIMJEUS.  All  sons  of  God 

Must  sing. 

PHILIP.  Beneath  his  hand  the  tool  found  life, 

And  every  fibre  of  the  wood  awoke 
To  resurrection  of  a  spirit  form — 
Clusters  of  grapes,  large  lilies,  birds  a-wing — 
The  workshop  melted  into  out-of-doors 
With  breath  of  some  divine,  creative  wind 
That  blew  upon  the  toiling  Carpenter; 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  75 

Until  I  bowed  before  its  mastery, 
Cried:    "Galilean,  let  me  work  with  you!" 
And  he :    "One  day  we  shall  together  find 
The  way  of  journeymen  across  the  world." 
MARY.     Philip,  I  would  know  further  of  this  man. 
VOICE  OF  JUDAS.    Art  thou  Messias? 
VOICE  OF  JOHN.  I  am  but  a  voice 

Out  of  the  wilderness,  calling  to  men : 
Make  straight  the  crooked  path  before  his  feet ! 
VOICE  OF  JUDAS.    Prophet  of  God,  when  will  Mes- 
sias come? 

MARY  [pointmg  towards  the  river]. 
Philip,  I  see  a  man  within  the  sun ! 
[The  sun  has  slipped  down  the  shoulder  of  the 
mountain  and  now  hangs  low  in  the  sky  be- 
hind a  tall,  remote  figure  watching  the  crowd 
at  the  river. ] 
PHILIP  [following  Mary's  hand~\. 

The  Carpenter ! 
VOICE  OF  JOHN  [loudly  exultant], 

Behold  the  Lamb  of  God! 
MARY.    The  Carpenter ! 
VOICE  OF  JUDAS  [ringing  with  joy]. 

My  Jesu!  is  it  thou? 


ACT  III 

SCENE. — The  Wedding  Feast  of  Cana.  Two 
weeks  later.  A  room  in  the  house  of  Obed 
the  bridegroom. 

The  earthen  floor  is  spread  with  carpets 
of  many  colours.  At  rear  centre  a  wide 
archway  opens  on  a  gallery  of  a  court  against 
a  night  of  stars  and  moonrise.  On  either  side 
of  the  entrance  a  spacious  ledge  strewn  with 
cushions  extends  to  right  and  left  of  the  room 
where  it  runs  at  right  angles  to  front.  The 
watts  are  hung  with  garlands.  Many  brass 
lamps  are  suspended  from  the  ceiling  by 
bronze  chains;  clusters  of  candles  project 
from  the  walls;  in  the  soft  glow  of  their 
light  every  detail  of  the  interior  is  visible. 
In  the  centre  is  a  platform  covered  with  a 
red  carpet  beneath  a  canopy  of  palm  leaves. 

The  room  is  full  of  guests,  reclining  along 
the  ledge,  eating  and  drinking  from  little 
tables  placed  at  intervals.  Among  the  cush- 
ions on  the  platform  Obed  and  Ada  recline 
— she  with  her  head  upon  his  breast.  He 

wears  the  glorious  apparel  of  a  bridegroom 
76 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  77 

with  a  crown  of  wild  flowers  on  his  head. 
Her  hair  flows  over  her  shoulders  and  is 
caught  at  the  temples  by  a  wreath  of  myrtle 
— her  bridal  garment  glittering  with  pieces  of 
silver — her  arms  and  ankles  adorned  with 
bracelets  of  gold.  At  right  of  the  platform 
musicians  are  seated,  playing  on  pipes,  harps, 
sackbuts,  cymbals  and  drums. 

Moving  among  the  guests,  or  stopping  to 
speak  to  Obed,  or  giving  commands  to  the 
servants  coming  and  going  with  flagons  of 
wine  on  trays,  the  Master  of  the  Feast  is 
distinguished  by  a  gold  embroidered  robe 
and  staff. 

It  is  the  la$t  evening  of  the  wedding  feast 
— rejoicing  and  laughter  are.  at  their  high- 
est. 

OBED  [in  a  lull  of  laughter  and  silence  of  instru- 
ments] . 
To-morrow  we  will  share  joy's  dearest  gift— 

ADA.     Silence  ? 

A  GUEST.          More  wine! 

OBED.  The  guests  are  thirsty. 

A  GUEST.  Wine ! 

A  RABBI.    Where  wine  is  wanted,  there  physicians 
thrive. 

ANOTHER  [holding  his  cup  to  a  servant  and  bow- 
ing to  the  Rabbi]. 
May  wine  be  always  on  a  Rabbi's  mouth ! 


78  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

ANOTHER.     A  good  old  proverb,  friend,  and  very 
true. 

ANOTHER.     Here  is  a  better — 

ANOTHER.  What!  know  you  a  better? 

ANOTHER.    Hush  you,  and  babble  not,  for  you  are 
drunk. 

A  RABBI  [tot/ing  with  a  cluster  of  raisins]. 
There  is  an  ancient  parable  that  reads: 
When  Noah  planted  in  a  field  the  vine, 
Satan  went  by  and  said — "What  doest  thou?" 
"Planting  a  vineyard,"  Noah  made  reply. 
"What  for?"  asked  Satan.     Then  the  patri- 
arch: 
"That  men  may  come  to  know  the  joy  of  wine." 

SEVERAL  [with  laughter  and  lifting  their  cups]. 
Hail,  Noah! 

RABBI.  Then  cried  Satan — "Let  me  help," 

And  Noah— "That  you  may." 

REVELLERS  [at  left,  with  boisterous  laughter]. 

Hell's  in  the  cup! 

RABBI.    So  Satan  killed  a  lamb,  a  lion,  sow 
And  ape,  letting  their  blood  soak  in  the  roots 
Noah  had  planted.    Thus  it  is  that  man, 
Before  he  drinks  is  dumb  like  any  lamb, 
But  after  many  cups  feels  as  a  lion, 
Until  by  further  quaffing  he  becomes 
A  sow  content  to  wallow  in  the  mire, 
And    ends    an    ape    that   chatters,    grins    and 
gnarls, 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  79 

Staggers    and   falls,   curls   there   and   goes   to 

sleep ! 
OBED  [looking  at  a  noisy  group]. 

Yonder  are  many  who  will  soon  be  apes. 
ADA.     Dear,  and  our  wedding  feast! 
A  YOUNG  MAN  [lifting  a  cup  of  wine]. 

The  bride!    The  bride! 

[He  stands  and  sings  to  an  accompaniment  of 
harps.] 

Her  eyelids  have  no  stain  of  blue, 
Her  hair  falls  waving  as  it  grew, 
Her  hands  need  not  the  henna-tone, 
And  those  deep  blushes  are  her  own ! 

ALL  THE  GUESTS  [clapping  their  hands,  join  m 
the  song~\. 

Her  brow  is  like  a  misted  moon, 
Her  eyes  the  sky  at  autumn  noon, 
Her  mouth  a  poppy  wet  with  rain, 
Her  throat  is  love  mid  lilies  lain. 

[At  a  sign  from  the  Master  of  the  Feast,  the 
musicians  begin  to  play — at  which  many  of 
the  guests  arise  and  salute  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  with  outstretched  hands  and  re- 
tire to  the  gallery.  Throughout  the  evening 
there  are  such-  movements  when  guests  depart 
and  new  ones  take  their  places  at  the  tables.] 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST  [to  the  new  comers']. 

Welcome,  O  friends  of  Cana,  to  the  feast 

Of  Obed  and  of  Ada. 


80  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

NEW  COMERS  [saluting  Obed  and  Ada]. 
Hail  to  love ! 

OBED.     I,  Obed,  answer  for  love  on  my  heart. 

NEW  COMERS.     May   children  be  as  vines  upon 

your  wall. 

[They  take  their  places  at  the  tables — servants 
bearing  their  food  on  platters  tenth  flagons 
of  wme  and  cups,  as  a  company  of  Maidens 
enter,  at  a  sign  from  the  Master  of  the  Feast. 
To  an  accompaniment  of  music  they  dance 
about  the  platform  strewing  -flowers  on  Obed 
and  Ada  from  wicker  baskets  hung  from  their 
shoulders.  As  they  dance  they  smg.~\ 

MAIDENS  [singmg~\. 

Along  the  wall 

Green  tendrils  crawl — 

Love,  thou  art  on  my  breast, 

O  sleep  and  take  thy  rest! 

The  clustered  vine 
Tells  of  the  wine 
Our  love  will  one  day  pour 
To  children  at  thy  door. 

Their  little  feet 

Are  on  the  street 

In  laughter,  song  and  play — 

Wake,  O  my  Love !  'tis  day. 

The  sun  is  up — 
Drink  of  the  cup 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  81 

I  from  love's  flagon  pour 
To  children  at  thy  door. 

[Ada,  under  a  shower  of  blossoms,  rises  and 
from  a  jar  at  her  side  throws  silver  pieces 
among  the  maidens  who  laughingly  scatter 
to  gather  them  from  the  floor.] 
ADA  [standing  above  the  maidens  with  Obed]. 
May  you  have  love,  friends  of  my  maidenhood, 
As  I  with  Obed ;  may  your  wedding  feast 
Know  laughter;  may  Messias  be  your  guest. 
MAIDENS.    Messias  will  be  master  of  all  feasts, 

When  he  is  come  to  ransom  Israel. 
ADA  [to  the  guests,  who  rise  at  her  word]. 
Friends,  in  the  name  of  him  who  is  to  come, 
I  thank  you  for  your  presence  at  our  feast. 
GUESTS.     Ada,  this  is  your  hour — to  you  we  bow. 

[They  bow  and  seat  themselves.] 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST   [approaching  Obed  and 

Ada.] 

Except  for  revellers  there  would  be  wine 
To  last  the  night. 

OBED.  There's  plenty  and  to  spare. 

MASTER  or  THE  FEAST.    The  guests  are  many  and 

the  revellers 

Drink  more  than  is  the  custom. 
ADA  [distressed], 

Oh,  the  shame 
If  we  fail  of  our  hospitality ! 


82  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

OBED.     Send  forth  the  servants  quickly  through 

the  town, 

Bidding  them  buy  more  wine. 

ADA.  Ay,  quickly  send. 

Shall  it  be  said  of  Obed's  wedding  feast — 
They  had  no  wine ! 

REVELLERS  [still  at  left  and  growing  more  noisy 
— to  a  Servant.] 

Ho,  fellow,  give  us  wine! 
SERVANT  [anxiously]. 

Peace,   peace,   my   masters!     This  is   not  the 

place 

For  noise  and  revelling — can  you  not  see 
The  brow  of  Cana's  bride  is  red  for  slfame? 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST.     It  shall  be  even  as  you 

have  said. 

[He  retires  to  the  gallery  where  he  is  seen  talk- 
ing to  a  servant.] 

REVELLERS    [pounding  on  the  tables  with   their 
empty  cups.] 

Wine !    Wine ! 

[Among  the  guests  who  enter  at  this  moment 
from  the  porch  are  Mary  of  Nazareth,  Jesus, 
Judas,  Philip,  Simon,  Levi  the  Publican,  An- 
drew, James  and  John.  They  recline  at  left 
near  the  revellers.  The  Master  of  the  Feast 
approaches,  and  rebukes  the  noisy  ones] 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST.  Good  friends,  I  pray  you 

let  not  thirst  for  wine 
Make  you  forgetful  of  the  parable 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  83 

Our  reverend  Rabbi  told. 
MARY  [to  Jesus]. 

Thev  have  no  wine. 
REVELLERS.     Wine !     Wine ! 
MARY  [to  Jesus']. 

Oh,  speak  to  them — Ada  is  ashamed. 
JBSUS  [to  Mary}. 

Mother,  my  moment  has  not  come. 
JUDAS  [to  Jesus']. 

Speak  now. 

JESUS.     Judas,  have  you  not  learned  to  wait? 
JUDAS.  To  wait? — 

Master,  the  world  has  waited  over  long. 

Speak  now  with  that  divine  authority 

Men  look  to  find  in  him  who  is  Messias. 
PETER.      Yea,   Master,    'tis    a   time   for   you   to 
speak — 

Rise  up  forthwith  and  let  them  hear  your  voice. 
PHILIP.    Master,  give  heed  to  what  these  say. 
JAMES.  A  sign — 

Give  them  a  sign — a  sudden  miracle 

To  awe  and  silence  them. 
JOHN.  Call  to  the  sky 

And  make  it  thunder. 
JESUS  [smiling  on  the  disciples]. 

Friends,  you  do  not  know 

What  spirit  you  are  of. 
SIMON  [with  loud  voice  to  the  company]. 

Oh,  hear  the  word 

Of  Jesus  who  is  called  the  Carpenter. 


84  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST.     Attend  ! 
GUESTS.  Speak,  Jesus  of  Capernaum. 

JESUS.     Blessed   are   you  who    thirst   for   right- 
eousness. 
ADA  [smiling]. 

Jesus,  my  friend! 

JOHN  [with  his  arm  over  Jesus'  shoulder].        . 
The  friend  of  all  the  world ! 
JESUS.    Of  all  who  love. 
JUDAS.  Ah,  Master,  wisely  said — 

But  not  of  those  who  hate. 

JESUS.  You  are  my  friend? 

JUDAS.     Master,  you  know  I  am. 
JESUS.  Then  must  you  love. 

JUDAS.     But  not  the  hateful  like  these  noisy  ones ! 
JESUS.     There  are  no  hateful. 
THOMAS  [one  of  the  Revellers,  to  Judas]. 

He  has  answered  you. 

Wine  made  us  noisy,  but  the  greater  sin 

Is  yours  who  judge. 
A  REVELLER.  We  have  enough  of  that 

From  Priest  and  Pharisee. 
JESUS  [to  the  Revellers]. 

All  you  are  sons 

Of  one  Eternal  Father. 
THOMAS.  Sons  of  God? 

There  is  no  God !  or  if  there  be,  he  cares 

No  whit  for  us. 
JESUS  [pointing  to  Obed  and  Ada], 

Friend,  that  is  God. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  85 

RABBI  [rising  and  tearing  his  outer  garment]. 

Jesus, 

Now  you  blaspheme ! 

AN  ELDER  [leaving  the  table  and  going  towards 
the  door]. 

This  at  a  wedding  feast ! 
JESUS  [to  both]. 

Hold,   friends,  have  you  not  heard  that  God 

is  love? 
JOHN  [with  enthusiasm], 

He  has  the  word! 
ELDER  [at  the  door  and  looking  back]. 

You  trifle  with  the  Name 

That  is  above  all  other  names ! 
RABBI  [joining  him], 

God  love ! 

[They  go  out  together], 
THOMAS  [laughingly  to  the  others]. 

The  room  is  well  rid  of  those  wagging  beards — 

Come,  let  us  finish  what  we  have  of  wine. 
THE  REST  [lifting  their  cups], 

Well  said — health,  Carpenter. 

[They  drink.] 
JESUS.  And  to  be  whole 

Is  health. 
THOMAS.        When  I  am  sober  I  am  half — 

When  I  am  tipsy,  faith,  then  am  I  whole. 

[The  others  laugh.] 
JESUS.    He  is  not  whole  who  adds  unto  himself 

What  is  without. 


86  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

THOMAS.  What  mean  you,  Carpenter? 

JESUS.     Divided  kingdoms  do  not  stand. 
THOMAS.  How  so? 

JESUS.     If  you  are  half  when  sober,  are  you  not 

Divided  ? 

THOMAS.    Ay,  and  joined  when  I  am  drunk. 
JESUS.    And  wine  is  that  which  is  not  of  the  soul? 
THOMAS.     It  makes  a  pleasant  mixture,  Carpen- 
ter. 

JESUS.     I  come  to  tell  you  of  a  wine  within. 
THOMAS.      Show  me  the  way  to   it  that  I   may 

drink. 

JESUS.     First  find  yourself. 

THOMAS.  How  can  one  find  himself? 

JESUS.      If   you   will   follow   me  you   shall   drink 
wine 

Within  my  Father's  Kingdom. 
THOMAS.  Where  is  that, 

Jesu  Bar  Joseph? 

JESUS.  In  your  soul. 

THOMAS.  My  soul? 

I  only  have  a  soul  when  there  is  wine. 
OTHERS.     Ha !  ha ! 

JESUS.  The  wine  of  which  I  speak  is  love. 

THOMAS.     A  maiden's  mouth,  for  instance? — not 
for  me — 

Blood  of  the  grape !  give  me  a  flagon  full, 

And  keep  all  women  from  tormenting  me. 
JESUS.     I  speak  of  love  that  loses  life  to  give 

Life  to  the  world. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  87 

JUDAS  [to  the  Revellers]. 

Hear  you  that  word,  O  Sons 
Of  Belial? — life  to  a  world  that  dies 
Because  you  and  your  like  sit  down  to  drink 
Wine  that  is  trampled  from  the  flesh  of  men! 
Behold  Messias  who  has  come  to  call 
Brave  hearts  and  true  to  lift  the  Roman  yoke 
Forever  from  the  neck  of  Israel ! 

THOMAS.     The  Carpenter?  he  makes  yokes  for  a 
trade. 

JESUS.     My  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  light. 

THOMAS.     I'll  yoke  me  twixt  two  flagons  of  red 
wine. 

JESUS.     Nay,  you  will  follow  me. 

THOMAS.  Are  you  a  prophet? 

JESUS.     Friend,  I  have  seen  your  soul. 

THOMAS  \laconic ally], 

l_  t/   J  T  TTl  t          1  *    1  9 

What  did  you  see? 
JESUS.     A  sorrow  that  made  you  afraid. 

THOMAS  [starting  from  the  table]. 

Afraid? 

JESUS.     And  so  you  ran  away  from  fear  with  wine. 
THOMAS  [brokenly]. 

You  are  a  prophet ! 

JESUS.  Friend  of  those  who  weep. 

THOMAS  [leaving  the  others,  goes  to  where  Jesus 
sits  among  the  disciples]. 

Yea,  I  have  sorrowed,  Master. 
JESUS    [reaching  forth   and   taking  him  by   the 

hand]. 

Thomas,  come! 


88  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

THOMAS  [looking  at  Jesus']. 

Let  me  go  forth  beneath  the  quiet  stars, 

And  think  a  while. 
JESUS.  Go. 

[Thomas  goes  out  into  the  night.] 
MARY  [to  Jesus]. 

You  have  made  him  whole. 
JESUS  [to  Mary]. 

Not  yet,  my  Mother,  there  are  many  days 

Ere  Didymus  has  learned  to  drink  my  cup. 
PETER  [in  a  loud  voice] . 

Lord,  I  will  drink  thy  liquor  to  the  lees. 
JUDAS.     And  I. 
JOHN.  And  I. 

JAMES.  And  I. 

ANDREW.  And  I. 

OBED.  And  I. 

ADA  [to  Jesus], 

If  my  love  drink  of  that  cup,  Master,  I 

Must  also  drink. 
JESUS  [rising], 

The  wine  is  waiting,  friends. 

[He  goes  out  to  the  gallery  where  the  servants 

are  grouped  listening.] 
REVELLERS.     Ho !  he  has  gone  to  get  us  heady 

wine! 

MARY  [following  Jesus,  speaks  to  the  servants  as 
she  passes  by]. 

Whatever  he  saith  unto  you,  that  do. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  89 

A  SERVANT  [to  Mary], 

Who  would  not  minister  to  such  a  man? 

JESUS  [to  the  servants  in  the  gallery]. 
Fill  up  these  jars  with  water. 

A  REVELLER  [listening], 

Water? — no, 
I  want  red  wine. 

JUDAS  [to  Peter],       Now  we  shall  have  the  sign! 

PETER.     A  miracle ! 

JAMES.  That  will  Messias  do. 

JUDAS.     Messias  must  work  miracles. 

PHILIP  [to  Judas], 

How  soon 

You  have  forgotten  what  our  Master  said — 
"An  evil  generation  seeks  for  signs." 

JUDAS  [passionately], 

There  must  be  miracles !  how  otherwise 
Can  people  know  he  is  Messias — come 
In  majesty  and  like  a  King?    This  talk 
With  drunken  fellows  is  to  cast  a  pearl 
To  pigs— now  we  shall  see  him  in  his  might. 

GUESTS  [caught  by  the  joy  in  the  voice  of  Judas, 

rise  at  his  words  and  turn  to  him], 
Messias  ? 

JUDAS  [leaving  the  table  walks  down  to  the  plat- 
form] . 

Children  of  the  Bridegroom,  see — 
Now  is  he  at  the  door ! 

[Jesus    enters,    followed   by   servants    bearing 
flagons  of  water.] 


90  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

GUESTS.  The  Carpenter! 

JESUS  [approaching  the  Master  of  the  Feast  who 

stands  near  Judas]. 

Master,  I  bring  you  wine  caught  from  the  sky. 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST  [with  a  smile,  takes  a  cup 
from  a  tray  offered  by  one  of  the  servants 
who  pours  from  a  flagon]. 
Our  custom  is  to  set  the  best  wine  first 
Before  the  guests. 
JUDAS  [turning  to  the  guests]. 

A  miracle! 

PETER  [starting  from  the  table  and  running  to- 
wards the  Master  of  the  Feast]. 

A  sign! 
THE  REST  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  [following  Peter]. 

Now  shall  you  know  our  Lord. 
REVELLERS  [walking  unsteadily  towards  the  serv- 
ants   who    stand   near    the    door    with    the 
flagons]. 

Give  us  the  wine. 
OBED  [to  Jesus]. 

Wine   from   the   sky?      Jesus,   you   play   with 

words. 
ADA  [to  Jesus]. 

Where  got  you  wine  so  quickly? 
OBED  [to  Ada]. 

You  forget 

We   sent    for   it — our    friend   but   plays   with 
words. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  91 

MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST  [holding  up  the  cup  be- 
fore all]. 

Now    let    your    cups    be    filled    and    drink    the 
health 

Of  Ada. 

[As  the  servants  pour  into  the  proffered  cups, 
murmurs  of  surprise  run  through  the  room}. 
GUESTS.         Wine  ? 'tis  water ! 
MASTER  OF  THE  FEAST.  Drink,  my  friends. 

[The  Guests  lift  their  cups  to  Ada.] 
GUESTS.     Your  health  and  happiness ! 
ADA  [hiding  her  face  on  Obed's  shoulder]. 

Oh,  I  am  shamed! 
JUDAS  [to  Jesus]. 

Master ! 

SIMON.          Where  is  the  sign? 
JESUS  [to  both]. 

Look  in  the  cup. 
JUDAS.     Work  now  the  miracle. 
SIMON.  Give  us  the  sign. 

JESUS.     Look  in  the  cup. 

JUDAS.  'Tis  only  water  there. 

JESUS.     Henceforth   the   sign   of  Jesus — Son   of 

Man! 
JUDAS  [eagerly], 

Nay,  Master,  you  must  break  upon  the  world 

Brighter  than  any  sun.    A  little  cup 

Filled  full  of  water  surely  is  no  sign. 
JESUS.     Who  gives  a  cup  of  water  in  my  name 

Is  my  disciple. 


92  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

JUDAS  [holding  the  cup  to  Jesus'], 

Make  the  water  wine, 

Then   will   the   world   know  that   you   are   the 
Christ. 

SIMON.     Ay,  that's  the  thing  to  do,  Lord,  make  it 
wine. 

JUDAS  [to  the  company]. 

Now  shall  you  see  Messias  going  forth 
Mantled  with  flame-gold  like  the  morning  sun! 

GUESTS  [holding  out  their  cups  to  Jesus], 
If  you  are  Lord  Messias,  make  this  wine! 

MARY   [coming  close  to  Jesus  and  plucking  his 

sleeve  coaxingly], 
Jesus  Bar  Joseph,  make  the  water  wine. 

ADA  [to  Jesus'], 

Jesus  of  Mary,  make  the  water  wine. 

PHILIP  [indignantly  to  the  rest], 

Blind  eyes,  how  can  you  miss  the  miracle 

Of  Jesus'  face — his  eyes — his  mouth — his  voice? 

What  do  you  hurting  him  with  "Sign !     Sign ! 

Sign!"- 

Did  he  not  come  gold  dusted  of  the  stars 
And  dewy  from  the  night  unto  the  feast? 
He  is  God's  laughter  and  the  love  of  men — 
The  innocence  and  mirth  of  boys  and  maids — 
And  yet  you  burden  him  with  miracles ! 
Apollo  and  Adonis  meet  in  him ; 
Bacchus  transfigured,  lifts  a  water  cup 
And  with  a  whitened  hand  sprinkles  the  earth 
Like  summer  rain. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  93 

[Turning  to  Jesus.] 

O  Carpenter,  how  long 

Must  you  stand  waiting  for  the  faith  that  sees 
How  any  word  or  sight  or  touch  of  you 
Opens  all  doors  that  close  on  happiness ! 
JESUS  [joyously  to  Philip]. 

Philip— O  Philip! 
JOHN  [caught  by  Philip's  words,  looks  at  Jesus]. 

Master,  forgive  your  friends  and  me. 
SIMON    [looking  at  Jesus  in  wonderment  as   the 
sense  of  the  new  sign  dawns  on  his  mind]. 

Water — 

The  sign  of  Jesus?     So  the  fisher  folk 
Are  called  .by  him  to  cast  their  net  for  men ! 
ADA  [beginning  to  understand,  calls  to  a  servant]. 
Give  me  a  cup  of  this  new  wedding  wine. 
[The  servant  bears  a  flagon  to  Obed  who  pours 
into  a  cup  which  he  gives  to  Ada.    She  turns 
to  the  guests  and  holds  high  the  cup], 
Let  it  be  told  hereafter  how  the  sign 
Was  given  at  the  Cana  wedding  feast — 
The  sign  of  Jesus  called  the  Son  of  Man  1 
GUESTS  [holding  their  cups  towards  Jesus]. 
Hail,  Jesu,  Son  of  Man ! 
[They  drink  together.] 
JUDAS  [dashing  his  cup  to  the  floor]. 

I  will  not  drink ! 
JESUS.     Judas ! 

JUDAS  [going  to  the  door  and  looking  back]. 
I  go  to  find  Messias. 


94  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

PHILIP  [following  Judas,  lays  a  hand  on  his  shoul- 
der]. 

Hold! 

JUDAS  [looking  sadly  at  Philip]. 
I  thought  the  Carpenter  was  he. 
PHILIP  [gently]. 

O  blind, 

Blind  Man  of  Kerioth ! 

JUDAS  [lifts  up  his  hands  in  passionate  pleading 
to  Jesus]. 

Jesus  Bar  Joseph, 

Make  me  believe  as  you  have  made  me  love! 
JESUS.     Judas ! 

[There  is  such  joy  in  his  word  that  Judas  and 
Philip  are  unconsciously  compelled  to  him. 
The  guests  whisper  among  themselves.] 
ADA  [to  Obed]. 

To  love  is  to  believe. 

JUDAS  [standing  near  Jesus  and  looking  into  his 
eyeg]. 

Master ! 

JESUS.     What  must  Messias  do? 
JUDAS.  Make  water  wine, 

Stones  bread;  leap  from  a  temple  pinnacle; 
Strike  every  mocking  mouth  with  miracles ; 
Call  lightning  from  the  clouds,  until  the  yoke 
Upon  our  necks  is  broken  and  the  land 
Set  free  from  Rome. 

JESUS.  I  too  was  tempted,  friend, 

By  such  a  thought. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  95 

JUDAS.  Did  not  the  prophet  say: 

"The  anger  of  the  Lord  is  on  all  nations, 
His  fury  on  their  armies"?    That  is  Christ! 

JESUS.     Also  he  saith:  "He  hath  no  comeliness — 
He  is  despised  of  men — a  man  of  sorrows." 

JUDAS.     Messias  is  a  King — you  make  him  slave. 

JESUS  [his  face  transfigured  by  his  vision], 
The  slave  of  man ! 

JUDAS.  We  have  enough  of  slaves — 

Man  must  be  freed  from  bondage  by  a  Lord 
Whose  word  will  make  all  earthly  fetters  fall. 

JESUS.     Only  a  slave  can  set  man  free. 

JUDAS  [with  anger  showing  in  his  voice]. 

A  slave ! 

JESUS.     Who  has  no  place  to  lay  his  head. 

JUDAS.  You  paint 

A  thing  less  than  a  leper — called  the  Christ 

JESUS.     He  who  will  lift  earth  to  the  highest  star 
Must  make  his  hands  meet  underneath  the  load. 

PHILIP  [with  his  old-time  laughter]. 
O  Hercules ! 

JUDAS.  Do  that,  and  men  would  nail 

Your  hands  together. — Jesus,  I  know  men — 
You  have  dreamed  over  long  among  your  tools — 
They  are  like  horses  to  be  tamed  by  bit 
And  bridle,  ready  to  be  rode  when  one 
Has  curbed  them. 

JESUS.  Men  are  all  the  sons  of  God, 

And  God  is  love,  and  only  love  can  speak 
With  love. 


96  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

LEVI.  So  love  found  me. 

THOMAS  [entering  and  hearing,  cries,  as  Tie  runs 

to  Jesus'  feet]. 

As  love  found  me! 
ADA  [to  Obed]. 

Was  ever  love  like  this  at  any  feast? 
JUDAS.     Love  will  not  save  the  world  from  Roman 

hate, 

And  we  must  groan  beneath  Tiberius 
Until  Messias  come  with  miracles. 
[Going  towards  the  door.] 
I  will  run  round  the  earth  and  back  again, 
Calling  and  calling  over  every  hill, 
Until  the  sky  grow  weary  of  my  voice 
And  rain  down  stars  in  answer  to  my  prayer. 
These  hands  will  beat  against  the  gates  of  God 
Until  they  open  with  a  fiery  flood 
Of  ruin  and  of  wrath  on  Babylon. 
Yea,  I  will  call  to  every  thunder  cloud: 
"Break  forth  with  lances  of  consuming  light, 
And  let  them  be  for  signs  that  Christ  is  come !" 
[He  goes  out  in  passion  from  the  room.     The 

eyes  of  att  are  turned  on  Jesus  who  stands 

with  outward  looking  eyes  as  though  upon 

the  world.] 


ACT  IV 

SCENE. — Lake  Shore  near  Capernaum.  Six  months 
later.  Early  morning  of  a  late  spring  day. 

The  background  is  a  perspective  of  the 
town — a  vista  of  square  houses  of  basalt  or 
Syenian  granite,  and,  on  higher  ground,  the 
marble  dome  of  a  great  synagogue.  Behind 
the  town  are  sloping  fields  of  white,  red,  blue 
and  purple  anemones  with  patches  of  mus- 
tard plants — the  dark  green  leaves  making 
vivid  their  yellow  blossoms.  The  fields  melt 
into  hills  of  olive  groves  intersected  by  vine- 
yards, with  groups  of  pomegranates  and 
palms. 

A  wide  road  curves  along  the  edge  of  the 
town,  lifted  above  the  shore  of  the  lake  by  a 
low  wall  of  basalt,  to  the  right  past  a  broad 
quay  that  juts  into  the  water.  Above  the 
quay  is  a  store  room  with  a  wide  door  in  the 
centre  and  over  it  a  window  with  closed  shut- 
ters. At  the  juncture  of  this  building  and 
the  road  is  a  seat  of  customs — a  ledge  of 
marble  behind  a  large  oaken  table. 

At  intervals  along  the  wall  there  are  wide 
stone  steps  descending  to  the  shore  from  the 
97 


98  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

road.  On  the  left  of  the  scene  there  is  a 
house  above  the  wall  with  a  court — the  house 
of  Simon.  In  the  court  is  a  garden  of  melons 
and  cucumbers.  Through  the  crevices  of  the 
•wall  are  masses  of  cyclamen. 

The  foreground  is  the  shore  of  the  lake  of 
Galilee,  shaped  like  an  amphitheatre,  reach- 
ing down  at  a  considerable  distance  to  the 
front.  Along  the  sand  are  several  small  fish- 
ing boats  held  upright  on  their  keels  by  poles 
against  the  gunwales.  Large  drag-nets  are 
spread  along  the  sand,  drying. 

From  the  city  is  heard  the  faint  hum  of 
voices.  Along  the  road  pass  and  repass  cam- 
els and  asses  with  panniers  of  fruit,  wool, 
dried  fish  and  other  commodities.  Men, 
women  and  children  go  by.  Sailors  are  busy 
on  the  quay  with  bales  of  merchandise.  At 
the  seat  of  customs  Levi  receives  the  taxes. 
Simon,  below  his  house,  sits  on  the  sand  with 
James  and  Andrew,  mending  nets. 

SAILORS.     Yo-e-o !    Yo-e-o ! 

CAMEL  DRIVERS. 

Wind  of  the  south, 
Blow  on  the  mouth — 
The  mouth  of  my  love; 
Wind  of  the  west, 
Blow  on  the  breast — 
The  breast  of  my  dove ! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  99 

SAILORS.     Yo-e-o !    Yo-e-o ! 
MULETEERS. 

In  Galilee,  in  Galilee, 
The  melon  gourds  are  gold, 
Wild  honey  of  the  humble  bee, 
The  olive  and  the  apple  tree, 
The  sheep  within  the  fold, 
Make  every  moment  bliss  to  me 
In  Galilee,  in  Galilee. 
SAILORS.    Yo-e-o !    Yo-e-o ! 

[A  burst  of  laughter  from  the  street  and  then 
a  throng  of  children  running  down  the  steps 
to  the  boats  where  they  play  at  hide-and- 
seek.] 
SIMON  [holding  up  a  mended  net  and  trying  the 

meshes  with  his  hands]. 
The  world  is  all  awake. 

JAMES  [filling  a  shuttle  with  twine  from  a  reel]. 

And  children  play. 
CHILDREN  [singing  among  the  boats]. 
Catch  me,  catch  me,  if  you  can — 
Ugly,  old  and  ragged  man ! 
While  we  run  we  laugh  and  shout — 
One — two — three — and  you  are  out! 
LEVI  [taking  change  from  a  Camel  Driver]. 

One  stater  more. 
CAMEL  DRIVER   [throwing  a  coin  on  the  table]. 

Plague  on  your  taxes,  man! 

MULETEER  [flipping  a  piece  of  money  at  Levi]. 
Mine  is  a  shekel,  publican? 


100  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

LEVI  [looking  at  the  panniers], 

Raisins  ? 

MULETEER.     And  figs. 
LEVI.  Whither? 

MULETEER.  Jerusalem. 

LEVI.    Pass  on. 

[From    the    road    at    left    a    lame    man    with 

crutches  pauses  at  the  seat  of  customs.] 
LAME  MAN  [to  Levi]. 

Sir,  may  I  rest? 
LEVI  [kindly']. 

Sit  here,  friend. 

LAME  MAN  [placing  his  crutches  against  the  wall, 
sits  on  the  bench]. 

I  thank  you. 
LEVI    [counting   money  into   little   heaps   before 

him]. 

Are  you  not  early  on  the  road? 
LAME  MAN.  Sun's  up, 

And  day  has  its  adventures. 

LEVI.  Whence  are  you? 

LAME  MAN  [laughing']. 

From  nowhere  to  nowhither. 
LEVI.  Do  you  beg? 

LAME  MAN.    I  am  too  lame  to  work,  and  one  must 

eat. 
LEVJ   [handing  to  him,  a  number  of  small  leather 

bags]. 
This  for  the  shekels,  those  for  staters — work ! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  101 

LAME  MAN    [taking  the  bags  and  looking  with 

surprise  at  Levi]. 

You  trust  me?     I  am  light  of  finger,  friend. 
LEVI.     Your  eyes  have  answered  me. 
LAME  MAN   [counting  money  into  the  bags.] 

You  questioned  them? 
LEVI.     One  learns  much  from  the  many  passing 

here. 

SAILORS.  Yo-e-o !  Yo-e-o ! 

CHILDREN.     Ugly,  old  and  ragged  man! 
LAME  MAN   [looking  up  and  watching  the  chil- 
dren] . 

Ugly,  and  old  and  ragged? — I  am  that. 
LEVI.     Only  outside. 

LAME  MAN.  And  what  is  there  within? 

LEVI  [tying  up  the  bags  that  the  other  fills]. 
The  soul — the  beautiful,  the  laughing  soul. 
LAME  MAN.    There  is  no  soul — only  the  flesh  that 

limps. 
LEVI.      Ay,   you  will  limp   until  you  find  your 

soul — 

Then  you  will  throw  away  your  crutches,  man. 
SIMON  [stretching  his  arms]. 

Toiling  all  night  for  fish  we  did  not  find, 
Burdens  my  body. 

ANDREW  [lookin-g  up  from  his  net  and  watching 
the  children  play]. 

One  must  toil  for  them. 

CHILDREN.    While  we  run  we  laugh  and  shout — 
One,  two,  three,  and  you  are  out! 


102  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

JAMES.   Where  is  the  Master? 
SIMON.  Hunting  his  lost  sheep. 

ANDREW.     Judas  ? 
SIMON.  Ay. 

JAMES.  Better  let  him  go. 

SIMON.  He'll  not — 

Never  was  there  such  folding  of  a  flock — 
He'll  seek  until  he  find  that  wanderer. 
[Among  the  people  on  the  street,  Jesus  is  seen 
walking  with  Judas,  Philip,  John,  and  Na-. 
thaniel;   they  approach  Levi  and  the  Lame 
Man.~\ 
LAME  MAN   [holding  up  his  crutches]. 

Throw  these  away? 

LEVI.  When  you  have  found  your  soul. 

LAME  MAN.    My  soul?    Man,  I  have  been  a  thief, 

a  dog 

Hunting  for  offal  in  a  village  street! 
LEVI.    And  always  have  you  been  a  Son  of  God. 
LAME  MAN.     Who  taught  you  this? 
LEVI.  Jesus,  the  Carpenter. 

[Levi  bends  over  the  money.     The  Lame  Man, 
looking   up,   sees   Jesus   among    the   crowd, 
drawing  near.] 
LAME  MAN.     Who  comes  with  eyes  of  laughter 

and  of  love? 
LEVI  [gazing  down  the  street]. 

My  Carpenter! 
LAME  MAN  [gathering  his  crutches]. 

He  must  not  find  me  here — 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  103 

Those  eyes  will  shame  me,  knowing  what  I  am. 
LEVI   [laughing  as  he  puts  his  arm  around  the 
other's  shoulder]. 

0  foolish  fellow !  he  is  not  the  man 

To  shame  you — he  will  help  you  find  your  soul. 
JESUS  [approaching  the  seat  of  customs  with  the 

others], 
Levi! 

LEVI  [rising  from  the  table  and  spilling  the  money 
from  a  bag  to  the  pavement]. 

Hail,  Carpenter! 

JESUS.  Come,  follow  me. 

LEVI.     Whither,  O  Carpenter? 
JESUS.  Across  the  world. 

LEVI    [laughing]. 

Faith;  'tis  a  journey. 

JESUS.  And  the  road  is  good. 

LAME  MAN  [looking  earnestly  at  Jesus  with  grow- 
ing confidence]. 

1  love  the  road,  though  I  am  very  lame. 
JESUS  [reaching  forth  a  hand  to  the  lame  man]. 

Love  of  the  road  will  make  you  leap  for  joy. 
LAME  MAN.     With  crutches  one  walks  painfully 

the  miles. 
JESUS.     Come,    friend,    and    I    will    make    your 

crutches  wings. 

LAME    MAN.  Levi,  let  fall  the  money — we  will  go. 
LEVI.     And  going,  find  your  soul? 
LAME  MAN  [laughing]. 

If  there  be  such 


104  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

I'll  find  it  where  the  wayside  banks  are  green. 
JESUS.     Now  we  will  gather  Simon  and  the  rest. 
{They  descend  the  steps  near  the  seat  of  cus- 
toms and  cross  the  sands  towards  the  fisher- 
men, talking  as  they  go.] 
MULETEERS  [in  fragment  of  their  song], 
The  sheep  within  the  fold, 
Make  every  moment  bliss  to  me 
In  Galilee,  in  Galilee. 
SAILORS.    Yo-e-o !    Yo-e-o ! 

[Simon's  boy — tanned  and  strong,  with  black 
curly  hair  and  eyes  aglow  with  fun — runs  up 
to  Jesus  with  outstretched  hands.] 
BOY.    One,  two,  three  and  you  are  out ! 
JESUS  [opening  his  arms  and  catching  him  to  his 

breast]. 
Ho,  little  man ! 
CHILDREN  [clutching  at  the  robe  of  Jesus]. 

Come  play,  dear  Carpenter. 
JUDAS  [impatiently  to  the  children]. 

You  must  not  hinder  him. 
CHILDREN  [pointing  at  Judas]. 

O  scowlly  man ! 
JESUS  [with  Simon's  boy  on  his  shoulder]. 

Suffer  the  little  children  come  to  me. 
CHILDREN  [making  a  song  at  Judas]. 

Catch  us,  catch  us,  if  you  can — 
Scowlly,  scowlly,  scowlly  man ! 
JUDAS.   But,  Master,  there  is  work  to  do  and  these 
Keep  us  from  it. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  105 

[Simon  and  the  others  look  up  and  seeing  Jesus 
among  the  children  leap  from  their  nets  and 
run  to  him.] 

SIMON.  Master ! 

JESUS  [kissing  the  eyes  of  Simon's  boy]. 

Of  such  is  heaven! 
PHILIP  [to  Judas~\. 

Have  you  not  yet  his  secret? 
JUDAS   [to  Philip]. 

I  am  torn 

Between  my  love  of  him  and  deepening  doubt ! 

[He  turns  away  from  the  rest  and  walks  mood- 
ily down  the  shore.] 
SIMON  [with  Andrew  and  James  at  Jesus'  side]. 

Master,  we've  waited  weeks  for  you  to  come. 
JESUS  [with  a  glad,  welcoming  smile]. 

Simon,  there  are  so  many  sheep  to  fold ! 
SIMON    [looking    at   Judas,    turns    with    a    deep 
laugh]. 

You  brought  the  black  one  home. 
JESUS.  A  shepherd  leaves 

His  folded  flock  and  seeks  until  he  find 

The  lost  lamb.    So  must  you  care  for  the  sheep. 
SIMON.    Master,  I  understand,  and  I  am  glad 

For  Judas ;  though  he  puzzles  still  and  frown. 
JESUS.    Strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the  way 

That  leads  into  the  Kingdom  of  my  joy, 

And  few  there  be  that  find  it. 
SIMON.  We  have  found 

And  we  will  follow   faithful  on  the  way. 


106  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

JESUS.     Simon  Bar  Jonas,  may  you  never  fail. 
SIMON  [stretchmg  his  arms  in  the  conscious  joy 

of  his  strength]. 
Fail?— Simon  fail?    Not  he! 
JESUS  [a  moment's  sadness  on  his  face]. 

Satan  will  sift 

Each  man  of  you  for  chaff  among  your  wheat. 
[As  he  looks  at  the  children  and  out  on  the 
world,  the  sadness  lifts  and  is  gone  before  a 
divine  mirth  that  glorifies  his  mouth.] 
But  he  will  find  you  mostly  ripened  wheat. 
CHILDREN.    Jesus,  dear  Jesus,  sit  upon  the  sand 

To  play  with  us. 
JUDAS  [returning,  speaks  to  Jesus]. 

Is  it  not  time  to  go? 
JESUS  [sitting  on  a  rock  near  a  boat,  beckons  the 

children  to  his  feet]. 

Time?     Ah,  you  are  so  anxious  of  the  time! 
Here,  where  the  children  laugh,  the  infinite 
Makes  me  forgetful  of  your  many  morrows. 
[The  disciples  sit  near  Jesus,  leaving  an  open 

space  for  the  children  at  his  feet.] 
A  LITTLE  GIRL  [holding  up  to  Jesus  a  lump  of 

clay]. 

Jesus,  make  me  a  bird! 

JESUS  [taking  the  clay  from  her  hand  and  begin- 
ning to  shape  it  with  swift  fingers]. 

What  kind  of  bird? 

LITTLE  GIRL  [after  a  moment's  hesitation]. 
Make  it  a  dove. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  107 

SIMON'S  BOY  [watching  Jesus], 

Jesus,  make  it  a  hawk. 
JESUS   [a*  the  shape  of  a  bird  grows  under  his 

fingers]. 

We  need  more  clay  to  make  a  hawk. 
CHILDREN  [clapping  their  hands  as  the  bird  form 
grows  out  of  the  clay]. 

See!  see! 
LITTLE  GIRL  [her  eyes  big  with  excitement]. 

Oh,  make  the  wings  wide. 

SIMON'S  BOY.  And  then  it  will  fly. 

SIMON  [smiting  his  knee  with  his  fist]. 
Master,  if  fishes  could  be  made  from  sand, 
We  would  no  more  go  toiling  with  the  net. 
JESUS  [giving  wings  to  the  clay]. 

Simon,  the  joy  is  only  in  the  task — 

What  would  you  do  with  days  removed  from 

work? 
SIMON.    Right  there,  my  Master,  for  one  Sabbath 

day 

Of  idling  in  and  out  of  synagogues 
Makes  me  a  hungry  ox  hitched  to  a  post. 
NATHANIEL.    Jesus,  I  do  not  like  a  synagogue. 
JESUS   [smiling  back]. 

Nathaniel,  you  pray  best  beneath  a  tree, 

And  I  upon  a  hill 

SIMON.  I  in  a  boat 

JOHN  [watching  the  upturned  faces  of  the  chil- 
dren]. 
And  I  with  children. 


108  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

PHILIP.  I  on  country  roads. 

JUDAS.    I  could  pray  best  among  a  host  of  shields 
Beating  a  highway  out  of  Roman  spears 
For  Israel — not   making  birds    from   clay. 

JESUS.     Impatient  Judas. 

JUDAS.  Master,  let  us  go. 

JESUS.    And  leave  the  children? 

CHILDREN.  Jesus,  stay  with  us. 

JESUS  [tenderly], 

My  little  ones,  always  you  are  with  me. 
[To  the  disciples.] 

It  would  be  better  for  a  man  to  leap 
Into  the  lake — a  millstone  round  his  neck — 
Rather  than  harm  one  of  these  little  ones 
Believing  me. 

PHILIP  [with  laughter  to  Judas'], 

So,  Judas,  be  a  child. 

JUDAS  [bitterly']. 

With  all  this  man's  work  waiting  to  be  done, 
How  can  we  tarry  on  a  beach  in  dream? 

JESUS.     Judas,  tell  me  who  have  done  most  for 

men — 

The  lad  with  many-coloured  coat  of  dreams 
Or  they  who  sold  him  unto  Ishmael? 
[Judas  is  silent.] 

PHILIP.     The  minstrels  and  the  dreamers  of  the 

world 

From  Orpheus  until  now  have  always  harped 
To  stones  that  did  not  know  what  made  them 
dance — 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  109 

The    stones    that    leap    on    dreamers    to    their 

death ! 
JESUS.    And  only  they  who  harp  can  make  stones 

bread. 
THOMAS.     Master,  take  up  your  harp  and  make 

men  bread. 
JESUS.      Thomas,   I  have  a  harp — these  are  the 

strings. 

[He  points  to  the  children.] 
THOMAS.     What  is  the  harp? 

JESUS.  All  they  who  follow  me. 

PHILIP.    And  what  the  song? 

JESUS.  The  Song  of  Brotherhood. 

[He  holds  up  the  finished  clay  before  the  chil- 
dren.] 
CHILDREN    [clapping   their  hands~\. 

Now  make  it  fly. 
JUDAS   [to  Jesus]. 

Even  the  children  plead 
For  signs ! 
JESUS  [to  the  children]. 

Nay,  children,  you  must  make  it  fly. 
CHILDREN  [as  Jesus  covers  the  bird  with  his  left 

hand  pointing  to  the  sky  with  his  right]. 
We  will — we  will! 

[They  follow  his  hand  with  eager,  laughing,  up- 
turned faces  and  pointing  fingers]. 

The  sun  shines  on  its  wings ! 
There  is  another — and  another — see, 
The  sky  is  full  of  white  and  feathered  wings ! 


110  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

THOMAS  [looking  into  the  sky], 

I  do  not  see  them. 
JUDAS  [to  Jesus'], 

It  is  in  your  hand. 

JESUS.     I  only  made  for  them  a  bird  of  clay 

JUDAS.    A  bird  of  clay?  that  is  no  sign. 
JESUS   [lookmg  at  the  children]. 

A  sign? 

Lo,  it  is  there — the  gift  of  dream  that  turns 
Earth  into  swift  and  upward  flight  of  birds ! 
Be  as  the  children,  Judas,  and  the  world 
Will  break  forth  into  laughter  at  your  voice, 
Heaven  will  come  down  and  God  will  walk  again 
In  man's  lost  garden. 

[He  gives  the  dove  to  the  little  girl,  who  walks 
away  with  it  up  the  shore,  followed  by  the 
others,   except  Simon's  boy,   who  stands  at 
Jesus'  knee,  looking  up  into  his  face.] 
SIMON'S  BOY  [to  Jesus], 

Now  make  me  a  hawk. 
JESUS  [to  the  boy], 

Have  you  the  clay? 

SIMON'S  BOY.  I  have  a  piece  of  wood — 

Make  me  a  boat. 
[He  takes  a  piece  of  wood  from  the  girdle  of  his 

tunic  and  gives  it  to  Jesus,] 

JESUS.  Simon,  give  me  your  knife. 

[Simon  takes  a  sheath-knife  from  his  belt  ana1 

hands  it  to  Jesus,  who  begins  to  whittle  at 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  111 

the  wood — the  boy  watching  hvm  or  stooping 
down  to  play  with  the  shavings  that  fall  at 
Jesus'  feet.] 

SAILORS.    Yo-e-o !    Yo-e-o ! 
CHILDREN   [at  a  distance  near  the  wall]. 
Fly  away,  dove, 
Fly  away,  dove! 
Carry  a  kiss 
To  the  one  I  love. 

{The  sun  is  higher  in  the  heaven,  and  the  street 
is  filled  with  people.    There  are  cries  of  driv- 
ers, sounds  of  many  voices  in  laughter  or 
salutation  or  anger.] 
LAME   MAN    [watching   the   boat   take  shape  in 

Jesus'  hands]. 

Give  me  a  blade  and  I  will  make  a  mast. 
ANDREW  [drawing  his  knife  from  its  sheath]. 
Here. 

[He  gives  the  knife  to  the  Lame  Man.] 
LAME  MAN    [stooping^  to   take  a  piece  of  drift 
wood  from  the  sand]. 

This  will  do. 
[He  whittles    the  wood.] 

JESUS    [looking  up  from  his   work  at   the  lame 
man]. 

You  are  a  carpenter? 
LAME  MAN.     I  have  tried  all  trades,  Lord,  and 

mastered  none. 

JESUS.    If  you  will  work  with  me  you  shall  become 
A  Master. 


112  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

LAME  MAN.     Lord,  I  broke  this  leg  upon 

A  scaffold — then  no  man  had  need  of  me. 
JESUS.    But  I  have  need  of  you. 
LAME  MAN  [laughing']. 

A  sorry  thing 

Am  I  to  minister  to  any  man. 
JESUS.    If  you  will  follow  me  the  lame  shall  walk 

The  lighter  for  your  word. 
JUDAS  [eagerly  to  Jesus']. 

Will  he  have  power 

To  make  a  cripple  walk  when  he  is  lame? 

Let  him  be  healed. 
JESUS  [to  Judas]. 

Judas,  you  seek  a  sign? 
JUDAS  {imploringly]. 

0  Master !   Make  the  lame  man  leap  and  walk, 

Then  will  the  world  believe  that  you  are  Christ. 
JESUS.    Am  I  the  Christ? 
JUDAS.  Lord,   you  have  said;  but   oh, 

You  tarry  over  long  to  give  a  sign. 
JESUS.     If  I  can  mr.ke  this  lame  man  teach  the 
lame 

To  bear  the  burden  of  infirmity, 

Finding  their  crutches  wings  of  lifting  joy, 

Would  that  not  be  a  sign? 

JUDAS.  The  world  is  weak — 

.    So  weak,  and  waits  the  sudden  hand  of  God 

In  some  arresting  sign  to  give  it  faith. 
JESUS.    There  are  no  sudden  signs  of  God. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  113 

JUDAS.  The  wind 

Out  of  the  desert  pouring  down  the  hills ; 
The  lash  of  lightning  curling  from  the  cloud; 
The  devastation  of  a  locust  blight; 
Surely  are  sudden  signs  direct  from  God. 

JESUS.     These  are  but  angels  of  the  air  and  earth, 
Lifters  of  trumpets  calling  man  to  war 
Wherein  he  learns  life's  purpose — mastery. 

JUDAS.   But  think  of  death  that  strikes  the  strong 

man  down, 

Leaving  his  wife  and  children,  or  a  bride 
Of  yesterday ;  think  of  the  fatherless 
And  all  the  lonely  little  ones  who  weep ; 
Are  these  not  signs — is  evil  not  a  sign — 
Are  grief,  and  pain,  and  sickness,  not  a  sign — 
Signs  that  are  sudden  from  the  hand  of  God  ? 

JESUS.    All  these  were  ever  in  the  plan  of  God — 
Waves  to  be  breasted  till  the  swimmer  grows 
Buoyant     above      them — hills      for     stronger 

thews — 

Heights  that  are  set  for  half  unfolded  wings. 
He  who  would  follow  me  must  take  his  cross — 
Not  shrink  from  it  nor  seek  to  lay  it  down. 

LAME   MAN    [with   joy   of   self-discovery   m  Ms 

voice] . 
Lord,  I  will  follow  you  on  crutches ! 

JESUS  [with  his  hand  on  the  Lame  Man's  shoul- 
der]. 

Come! 


114  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

SIMON'S  BOY  [clapping  his  hands]. 

The  boat  is  made! 

JESUS  [holding  out  his  hand  to  the  Lame  Man]. 
Now  we  will  step  the  mast. 
[He  takes  the  mast  and  fits  it  in  the  boat.] 
SIMON'S  BOY.    A  leaf  shall  be  the  sail. 

[He  runs  towards  the  children  still  playing  up 

the  shore.] 
SIMON  [looking  at  the  Boy  and  laughing], 

And  sand  the  sea ! 

Give  him  a  twig  and  he  will  make  a  forest — 
A  blade  of  grass  and  he's  a  trumpeter. 
PHILIP.    Yet  Judas  asks  a  sign !    Give  me  the  sign 
Of  childhood  in  a  triumph  over  tears. 
[The  crowd  begins  to  gather  from  the  road  un- 
til the  shore  is  filled  with  people  drawing  near 
to  Jesus.] 

VOICES  [from  the  crowd]. 
Where  is  he? 

There. 

Down  by  the  boat? 

'Tis  he- 
Talking  with  Simon  Peter  and  the  rest. 

And  does  he  heal  the  sick? 

Yes. 

No. 

Yes. 

No. 
Is  any  hurt  among  us? 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  115 

There  is  one — 
Possessed    of   devils. 

Careful !  she  will  tear 
You  with  her  teeth. 

Not  now — wait  till  her  eyes 
Roll  and  her  teeth  gnash. 

There  was  a  leper — 

A  Leper?    No,  he  could  not  cleanse  a  leper. 

He  could — did  he  not  turn  the  water  wine 
At  Cana? 

Yes. 

A  rumour! 

No,  'tis  true. 
{The  disciples  gather  about  Jesus  as  the  crowd 

draws  nearer.^ 

JUDAS.     Master,  they  seek  a  sign. 
VOICES.  He  waits  for  us. 

How  comely  is  his  hair. 

Like  russet  gold 
On  autumn  apples. 

He  is  like  a  king. 

His  eyes  are  like   cornflowers  in  the  sun. 
David  before  Goliath  looked  like  him. 

Come,  let  us  weave  for  him  a  crown 
Of  laurel  and  of  lilies. 


116  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

Wait  his  word — 

A  voice  that  is  the  sound  of  little  waves 
Falling  on  golden  sand  along  the  shore. 
[At   the  note  of  a  wailing  cry,   as  from   the 
throat  of  a  hurt  animal,   the  crowd  shrink 
back  against  the  wall.] 

Make  way  for  her — 'tis  Mary  Magdalene! 
[From  the  crowd  Mary  stands,  Tier  beautiful 

face  distorted  and  her  hair  dishevelled.] 
MARY.  Fools  to  be  so  deluded  by  this  man ! 
JUDAS  [running  to  her]. 

Mary! 

MARY  [gazing  vacantly  at  him,  begins  to  laugh, 
wildly]. 

I  know  you  not. 

JUDAS  [reaching  forth  to  take  her  hand], 

Come,  follow  me. 
MARY  [resisting  him]. 

Nay,  Marah  is  my  name — called  bitterness. 
VOICES.     Is  not  that  Judas? 

Ay,  he  loved  her  once — 
They  were  to  wed. 

MARY.  Your  hand  is  hot  on  mine — 

Are  you  a  stake — I  burning  for  a  witch? 
[She  screams  and  falls  on  the  sand] 
VOICES.    Now  are  the  devils  come  tormenting  her. 

If  Jesus  be  Messias,  he  will  speak, 
Calling  the  devils  out  of  her. 
JUDAS  [kneeling  to  lift  Mary  from  the  sand]. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  117 

Rise  up, 
My  love. 
[He  lifts  Tier  in  his  arms  and  carries  her  down 

to  where  Jesus  stands.] 

VOICES.  Watch  now  and  see  what  he  will  do. 

JUDAS  [still  holding  Mary  in  his  arms,  stands  be- 
fore Jesus], 

Master,  behold  the  woman  whom  I  left 
To  follow  you! 
[Mary  is  quiet  m  his  arms — her  eyes  rolled 

back  in  a  cataleptic  fit.] 
JESUS.  Lay  her  upon  the  sand. 

[Judas  places  Mary  at  Jesus1  feet,  who  looks 

down  at  her.] 
VOICES.    What  will  he  do  ? 
JESUS  [in  a  low  voice]. 

My  little  sister,  wake 
And  look  on  me! 
[Mary  stirs  like  a  sleeping  child  and  moans'  as 

in  pain.] 

VOICES  [the  crowd  drawing  near,  some  almost  at 
Jesus'  side]. 

If  he  restore  her , 

JUDAS   [with  wonder  in  his  eyes  gazes  down  at 
Mary] . 

Lord! 

JESUS.     Mary  of  Magdala,  who  loved  so  much, 
Open  your  eyes,  forgetful  of  your  pain. 
[Mary  begins  to  talk  in  broken  sentences.] 


118  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

MARY.    I  am  a  woman — love  me — that  is  Christ! 
JUDAS.    O  Master,  see  how  I  have  hurt  her  heart! 
PHILIP  [with  his  great  love  of  Mary  transfigur- 
ing his  face]. 

A  man's  love  is  too  rough  and  rude  a  thing 
For  God's  red  flower  called  a  woman's  heart. 
JESUS  [with  a  voice  that  rises  like  a  sudden  wind 
among  the  trees — a  sound   that  brings  the 
multitudes  and  the  disciples  to  their  knees]. 
Mary  of  Magdala,  your  Master  calls ! 
[At    his   voice,    Mary's    eyes    open   on   Jesus. 
From  their  blue  depths  there  is  infinite  un- 
derstanding blent  with  joy.] 
MARY.    I  heard  my  mother  call! 
JUDAS  [on  his  knees  at  her  side  and  taking  her 
hand]. 

All  mothers  call 
With  Jesus'  voice. 
MARY  [supported  on  the  shoulder  of  Judas]. 

Judas,  have  we  not  found 
Christ  in  a  garden? 

JUDAS  [exultantly  lifts  Mary  to  her  feet  and  with 
his  arm  about  her  waist  faces  the  kneeling 
people] . 

Men,  behold  the  sign — 
.    The  sign  of  Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  God! 


ACT   V 

SCENE. — Before  the  garden  of  Gethsemane.  Two 
years  later.  The  night  of  the  betrayal  of 
Jesus. 

An  ivy-covered  wall  of  rough  stone  extends 
across  the  rear  of  the  scene  which  is  filled  by 
a  grove  of  olives.  Within  the  wall  at  centre 
is  a  gate.  At  right  and  left  are  olive  trees 
through  which  a  road  winds  past  the  garden. 
At  the  left  of  the  gate,  against  the  wall,  is 
a  large  stone  olive  press  over  which  a  tree 
from  the  garden  extends  its  branches.  Below 
the  road  to  the  front  is  a  field  of  wild  flowers 
and  berry  bwhes.  The  paschal  moon  is  visi- 
ble above  the  trees  of  the  garden  and,  as  the 
act  progresses,  slowly  climbs  a  sky  of  many 
stars. 

In  the  moonlight  every  detail  of  the  scene 
is  outlined  with  a  silvery  glow  that  gives  a 
fairy  charm  to  the  garden. 

Seated  at  the  olive  press,  or  lying  on  the 
grass,  are  some  of  the  disciples  and,  among 
them,  Philip,  Thomas,  Andrew,  Bartimceus, 
Levi  and  the  Lame  Man. 

119 


120  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

THOMAS  [at  the  olive  press]. 

My  heart  is  heavy,  for  the  Master's  face 

Was  white  with  sorrow  when  he  entered  there. 
LEVI  [rising  from  the  grass  and  going  to  the  gate 
where  he  stands  looking  over  it]. 

Why  did  he  leave  us  lonely  at  the  gate? 
BARTIM^EUS   [at  the  olive  press,  leaning  forward 
with  his  hands  clasped  on  his  staff]. 

Is  the  gate  open?     I  can  only  feel 

How  soft  the  moonlight  falls  among  the  leaves. 
THOMAS.     The  gate  is  closed  on  silence. 
BAETIM^EUS.  I  can  hear 

Low  laughter  of  the  leaves. 
THOMAS  [listening]. 

It  is  the  brook 

Running  to  tell  the  olive  trees  that  Christ 

Prays  in  a  garden. 
BARTIM^EUS   [holding  up  a  hand  uncertainly], 

Is  there  not  a  wind? 

THOMAS    [plucking   a   leaf  from   a   vine   on   the 
wall]. 

Not  so  much  as  to  stir  this  leaf  of  vine. 
ANDREW  [to  Bartimau*]. 

An  angel  brushed  you  with  a  wing. 
LAME  MAN.  What  peace 

Is  on  this  place! 
PHILIP.  Within   all  garden  walls 

Peace  walks  with  Christ. 

LAME  MAN.  As  on  a  summer  road. 

PHILIP.     Why  not  a  winter  one? 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  121 

LAME  MAN   [laughing]. 

'Tis  all  the  same — 

His  feet  would  make  the  frost — vines,  and  the 
snow — 

White  lilies. 

BARTIM^US.  I  can  smell  the  cyclamen. 

LAME  MAN.     There  must  be  honeysuckle  on  the 

wall. 

ANDREW.    Why  did  not  Judas  go  within  the  gar- 
den? 

THOMAS.     Something  is  on  his  mind. 
LEVI.  He  walks  alone 

Of  late,  frowning  and  talking  to  himself. 
LAME  MAN  [angrily]. 

'Tis  he  who  made  the  Master's  face  so  white 

With  sorrow. 
ANDREW.  Always  has  there  been  a  point 

Of  difference  between  the  two. 
LEVI.  And  yet 

Jesus  has  ever  leaned  on  Judas. 
ANDREW.  Ay, 

But  something  happened  at  the  paschal  feast 

That  sunders  them. 

LAME  MAN.  And  Jesus  grieves  for  that. 

PHILIP.     What  did  he  mean  by  saying — "One  of 
you 

Betrays  me"? 
BARTIM^EUS.         Every  one  who  sits  to  learn 

Betrays  his  teacher  'til  he  is  a  master. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

PHILIP.     And  we  are  very  dull — and  so  betray? 
Blind  man,  how  well  you  see!  and  that  is  all 
The  Master  meant? 

THOMAS.  Ay,  only  thus  betray 

Beauty,  goodness,  and  truth  by  failing  them — 
So  far  beyond  the  reach  of  earthly  hands. 

LAME  MAN.    I  know  what  happened  at  the  feast. 

PHILIP.  Tell  us. 

LAME  MAN.    Judas  is  yet  beneath  the  tyranny 
Of  signs  and  wonders — fails  to  see  that  Christ 
Came  unto  men  to  make  them  reconciled 
With  life — and  frets  the  Master  with  his  plea: 
"The  people  need  a  sign." 

BARTIM^EUS.  Two  years  have  passed 

Since  Jesus  gave  the  Magdalene  her  mind 
And  blessed  their  love,  yet  Judas  asks  a  sign! 

PHILIP.      There  is   a  kind  of  man  to  whom  the 

world 

Is  like   a  crust  of  black,  abandoned  bread 
Found  by  a  beggar  who  is  forced  to  eat 
Or  starve,  and  so  asks  honey  thickly  spread 
To  hide  the  taste  from-  his  too  dainty  tongue. 

LAME  MAN.     No  one  has  learned  of  Jesus  till  he 

find 
The  taste  of  life  most  wonderfully  sweet. 

PHILIP.    Life  is  a  comb  of  honey  to  the  taste — 
If  it  be  bitter,  then  the  tongue  is  coated 
With  gall  of  anger  or  the  love  of  self. 

ANDREW.    Life  is  not  sweet  to  Judas. 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  123 

PHILIP.  So  he  seeks 

Signs  and  more  signs  to  make  it  to  his  taste. 
ANDREW.      His  tongue  is   coated  then? 
PHILIP.  Ay,  with  the  gall 

Of  anger.    He  who  hates  as  Judas  hates, 
Makes  life  a  crust  of  black  and  bitter  bread — 
Hate  always  is  revealed  in  asking  signs. 
THOMAS.     But  surely,  Philip,  one  may  hate  the 

man 

Who  ravishes  a  wife  and  slays  her  child? 
PHILIP  [rising  and  walking  to  and  fro  before  the 
olive  press — his   face   transfigured  with  the 
ecstasy  of  his  vision}. 
Life  is  a  test  of  love  before  the  face 
Of  all  that  is  unlovely,  evil,  vile; 
And  he  becomes  a  master  who  withstands 
Temptation  to  unloose  the  tongue  of  hate, 
Prevailing  through  the  godhood  of  a  smile ! 
Such  is  our  glad,  divine,  dear  Carpenter — 
One  smile  of  Jesus  is  the  sign  of  signs 
And  more  than  any  marvel. 
[After  a  pause.} 

We  must  win 

The  world  through  love  and  laughter  and  pro- 
claim 

With  joy  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
LAME  MAN.    When  Christ  comes  from  the  garden 

we  will  take 
Him  by  the  hand  and  go  upon  all  roads 


124  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTII 

Shouting  our  secret :    "Joy  is  now  the  sign 
Of  man's   redemption!" 

BARTIMJSUS.  Then  the  white  will  fade 

From  Jesus'  face,  when  he  finds  we  are  strong 
And  ready  for  the  road! 
ALL,  [rising  and  standing  near  the  gate~\. 

The  road!  the  road! 
PHILIP.    Come,  let  us  walk  a  while  till  Jesus  comes 

Out  of  the  garden. 
BARTIM^US.  I  sit  here  and  wait. 

[The  others  go  out  at  right  through  the  trees. 
The  blind  man  sits  in  quiet  reverie  as  though 
listening  to  little,  inaudible  sounds.  The 
moonlight  shines  down  upon  his  face  from  a 
cloudless  sky.  In  a  sweet,  gentle  voice  he 
begins  to  croon  a  song.~\ 

Little  boy  Jesus, 
Tell  what  you  are — 
Moondrift  and  white  cloud 
Caught  on  a  star! 

Little  boy  Jesus, 
What  did  you  see? 
Berries  and  blossoms 
In  Galilee! 

Little  boy  Jesus, 
Where  did  you  go? 
Down   by   the  Jordan 
Watching  it  flow! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  125 

Little  boy  Jesus, 
What  is  your  will? 
Wood  for  a  cradle 
On  a  green  hill. 

[Mary  Magdalene  comes  down  the  road  at  left, 
stealing  softly,  intent  on  the  song;  as  it  ends 
she  approaches  Bartimceus.] 
MARY.      Blind   man,    where   did   you   learn    that 

cradle  song? 
BARTIMJEUS.      I   passed   a   stable   long   ago   and 

heard 

A  mother  sing. 

MARY.  Where,  blind  man? 

BARTIM^JUS.  Bethlehem — 

I  was  one  of  those  shepherds  on  the  hill 
To  whom  an  angel  sang. 
MARY  [sitting  at  his  side}. 

What  did  you  see? 
BARTIM^EUS.      A   golden   star  hung  like   a  lamp 

within 

A  rift  of  cloud. 
MARY.  And  then? 

BARTIM^US.  A  luminous 

Glad  face  below  the  star. 
MARY.  Lord  Gabrielle! 

BARTIM^US.     The  angel  of  all  mothers,  Magda- 
lene. 
MARY.     You  were  not  always  blind? 


126  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

BARTIM^US.  A  shadow  came 

Between  the  sun  and  me  not  many  months 

After  the  star;  but  first  I  saw  the  babe! 

Then  Bartimaeus  had  no  further  need 

Of  eyes,  who  had  beheld  the  holy  child. 
MARY.    Where  is  the  Master? 
BARTIMAEUS.  In  Gethsemane. 

Why  are  you  here? 

MARY.  I  wait  for  Judas. 

BARTIIOSUS.  He 

Went  not  with  the  disciples — Magdalene, 

I  fear  for  Judas. 
MARY  [bitterly], 

Oh,  these  aching  months 

Of  pleading  and  of  prayer  to  turn  him  back 

From  what  he  means  to  do ! 
BARTIMAEUS.  The  Master  knows — 

The  others  only  wonder,  watch  and  wait. 
MARY.    He  is  in  fellowship  with  Caiaphas, 

Plotting  to  prove  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ. 
BARTIM^US.      Mary,   the  Master  knows — be  not 
afraid — 

No  harm  can  come  to  him  from  any  man. 
MARY.     But  harm  may  come  to  Judas — hurt  of 
soul 

That  will  forever  mar  the  man  I  love. 
BARTIM^CUS.      Then   you   must  love  him   all  the 
more — how  else 

Can  souls  be  saved? 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  127 

MARY.  O   Bartimaeus,   you 

Of  all  men  first  made  me  aware  of  Christ 
That  day  down  by  the  Jordan  when  you  sang — 
Now  you  must  teach  me  how  to  keep  this  man 
From  harm. 

BARTIM.EUS.     Keep  watch,  and  when  you  see  him 

near, 

Lead  me  within  the  garden;  but  meanwhile, 
Tell  me  what  Judas  ponders  in  his  heart. 

MARY.    First  hear  my  story:  after  Judas  found 
His  friend  and  Master  near  Bethabara, 
I  was  hot  anger  and  a  vengeful  flame 
Upon  the  man  who  robbed  me  of  my  love. 
Day  followed  day  and  night  came  after  night, 
Until,  so  lonely  and  bereft  of  joy, 
My  thoughts  were  tangled  in  the  purple  web 
Of  sorrow,  and  I  raved  across  the  fields, 
Along  the  roads,  filling  the  villages 
With  maledictions  on  all  love,  until 
The  people  whispered:     "Mary  is  possessed 
Of  devils  !"    Then  I  heard  a  voice  that  said : 
"My  little  sister,  look  on  me !"  First  peace — 
Peace  I  have  sometimes  glimpsed  down  dim  ra- 
vines 

Of  vineyards,  ere  the  dew  has  left  the  dawn — 
Peace  I  have  fancied  on  a  baby's  face 
Pillowed  upon  the  breast,  or  found  above 
Eyes  that  are  heavy  with  the  dream  of  death — 
Then  like  a  swimmer  rising  from  the  pool 


128  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

Down    which    he    dived,    reason    returned    to 

breathe 

Within  its  element  so  lately  left, 
So  proudly  spurned,  so  gladly  won  again. 
Yea,  I  was  borne  upon  the  balanced  wings  of 

peace, 

Like  any  bird  a-homing  through  the  heavens, 
Up,  up  into  the  blue  of  Jesus'  eyes ! 

BAKTIM^US.     I  saw  them  with  the  shepherds  when 

we  found 
Him  lying  in  a  manger! 

MAEY.  Then  I  knew 

That  all  the  love  of  earth  through  all  the  years 
Of  loving,  since  a  woman's  mouth  began 
To  stir  men  out  of  slumber  into  song, 
Was  met  in  Jesus'  eyes,  and  he  the  bride 
And  he  the  groom  forever  at  the  door. 

BAKTIM^US.     Mary,  you  have  learned  Christ! 

MARY.  But  this  I  found: 

A  world  not  ready  for  this  lover-man, 
Confusing  him  with  images  of  clay 
On  temple  tables,  seeking  for  a  sign — 
A  manifesting  of  his  power — his  power! 
God !  how  the  stupid  people  miss  the  path 
That  winds  past  every  garden  gate  to  heaven. 
His  power!    Oh,  it  is  upon  his  mouth 
And  in  his  eyes — the  touch — the  way  of  him! 
Supreme  and  tender  miracle  of  man, 
What  do  they,  asking  you  for  any  sign? 

BARTIM^US.     Ay,  you  know  Christ! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  129 

MAEY.  And  of  these  foolish  men, 

Judas  is  first.    Oh,  what  has  blinded  him 
That  he  can  miss  the  sun  on  Jesus'  hair! 

BARTIM^EUS.     He  pays  the  price  strong  men  must 

pay  on  whom 

The  fretting  business  of  the  world  depends. 
Listen — a  parable   of   four  men,  told 
By  Persian  Magi:  "When  God  made  the  world 
Four    angels    watched   him    turn    the    star   in 

space — 

The  first  said:   Give  to  me,  O  God,  thy  star! 
The  second :    Tell  me,  God,  how  it  was  made ! 
The  third:    Why  is  there  any  world  at  all? 
The  fourth  knelt  to  adore  and  went  away 
To  make  another  like  God's  golden  star." 
These  souls  are  known  in  human  history: 
The  man  of  business,  then  the  scientist, 
The  sage  and  poet.     Judas  is  the  first, 
And  we  the  last — only  as  men  rise  up 
From  holding  and  accounting  for  a  star 
To   that  pure  worship   of  the  beautiful 
In  holy  art  of  giving  like  the  Christ's, 
Will  they  no  longer  clamour  for  a  sign — 
The  sign  will  be  the  service  of  their  love. 

MARY.     The  way  to  Christ  must  be  as  you  have 

said — 

Past  any  need  that  holds  one  bound  by  love 
Of  builded  things  and  faith  in  ancient  law, 
Customs  and  forms.     A  spirit  must  be  free 
To  tread  the  upper  air  of  day  with  him. 


130  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

BARTIM.EUS.     Ay,  that  is  Christ,  but  men  must 

travel  far 

Before  they  find  the  freedom  of  his  feet. 
Meanwhile,  what  now  of  Judas? 
MARY.  I  have  learned 

That   he,  impatient   of  the  Master's   way, 
Will  force  the  issue  with  a  company 
Of  swordmen  from  the  garrison,  this  night 
Here  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane! 
BARTIM^EUS  [horror  stricken,  rises  from  the  olive 
press  and  tries  to  find  his  way  to  the  gate 
with  his  staff], 
Satan  has  entered  his  heart! 

MARY   [overtaking  him,  guides  him,  through  the 
gate']. 

Go,  find 

The  Master — Judas  must  not  do  this  thing — 
I  will  wait  for  him  at  the  gate. 
[She  stands   within   the  gate,   watching  Bar- 
timceus,    who    disappears    among    the    trees, 
tapping  with  his  staff  to  find  the  way.] 
BARTIM^EUS.  Master ! 

[Mary  shuts  the  gate  and  stands  looking  down 
the  road  at  left,  whence  come  the  murmur 
of  voices  and  the  glimmer  of  torches."} 
MARY.     They  come ! 

[She  turns  and  calls  after  Bartimceus.] 

Oh,  tell  the  Master  that  they  come  \ 
There  is  a  gate  within  the  western  wall — 
Tell  him  to  go  that  way! 


THE  MAN  OF  KER1OTH  131 

BAKTHMLSUS  [from  a  distance]. 

Master !    Master ! 

[Judas  appears,  followed  at  a  distance  by  a 
band  of  soldiers  and  a  company  of  priests, 
levites  and  men  from  Jerusalem.  They  move 
quietly  and  speak  in  subdued  tones.  At  a 
sign  from  Judas  they  halt,  while  he  draws 
near  to  Mary.] 
MARY  [standing  before  the  closed  gates,  faces 

Judas]. 

Judas,  why  are  you  here  with  all  these  men? 
JUDAS    [sternly]. 
Woman,  aside! 
MARY.  I  am  the  bolt  that  bars 

You  from  an  evil. 

JUDAS.  Woman,  stand  aside! 

MARY.    You  shall  not  enter  here. 
JUDAS   [pointing  to   the  distant  company]. 

Let  these  men  pass! 
MARY  [passionately], 

Now  in  the  name  of  God,  I  stand ! 
JUDAS   [earnestly]. 

Mary! 
MARY.    By  every  moment  of  our  love,  I  swear 

You  shall  not  enter  in! 
JUDAS.  And  by  the  tears 

Of  Israel,  I  pray  you  stand  aside! 
MARY.    If  you  but  place  your  hand  upon  the  gate, 
My  hand  will  pluck  the  love  you  planted  here, 
Up  by  the  roots  and  throw  it  in  your  face ! 


132  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

JTTDAS.    Love,  life,  faith,  hope,  joy,  you — all  that 

I  have 

Are  staked  on  this  last  venture  of  my  soul. 
MARY.     Go  through  this  gate  and  you  have  lost 

your  soul! 
JUDAS.       You    tax    my    patience — woman,    stand 

aside — 

Time  and  eternity  are  met  to  prove 
The  moment  of  my  deed — if  he  be  Christ, 
Then  ere  the  moon  hides  in  that  coming  cloud 
The  angels  will  descend,  the  dead  rise  up, 
To  meet  our  Master.     Mine  alone  the  faith, 
The  love,  to  lift  him  forthwith  on  his  throne! 
So  let  these  pass. 
MARY  [stretching  her  arms  along  the  gate]. 

Love  nails  me  to  a  cross 
To  guard  his  gate. 
JUDAS  [to  the  captain  of  the  band]. 

Advance ! 

MARY  [as  the  soldiers  move  up,  followed  by  the 
others]. 

Master,  they  come — 

[Judas  leaps  forward  and  seizes  her,  placing 
his  hand  over  her  mouth,  and  draws  her 
struggling  body  aside  as  the  soldiers  and  the 
crowd  rush  through  the  gate.  In  the  agony 
of  her  moment  Mary  swoons.  Judas  takes 
her  to  the  olive  press  and  lays  her  tenderly 
thereon.] 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  133 

JUDAS  [with  tears\. 

Oh,  my  bruised  blossom  out  of  Magdala! 
\He  swiftly  joins  the  company  in  the  garden. 
For  a  while  there  is  heard  the  sound  of  foot- 
steps softened  by  the  leaves,  and  the  torches 
recede  more  and  more  among  the  trees  until 
they  twinkle  like  fireflies.  The  moonlight 
falls  on  Mary's  pallid  face  and  hair  that 
hangs  in  the  glory  of  its  abundance  over  the 
ledge  of  the  olive  press.  She  stirs  and  slowly 
rising,  looks  vacantly  about  her.  Her  mind 
is  once  more  affected  by  sorrow.  She  forgets 
that  Judas  has  entered  the  garden  to  betray 
Jesus.  Sitting  on  the  ledge  of  the  olive  press 
she  begins  to  arrange  her  hair,  braiding  it  as 
she  sings  in  a  little,  soft  voice  like  that  of  a 
child.  ] 
MARY.  Down  in  the  west  is  the  sun — 

Day  is  done. 
Come  to  the  tamarask  tree, 

Love  with  me; 
Or  to  the  olive  and  vine, 
Heart   of  mine. 

Out  of  the  night  steals  a  star 

Faint  and  far; 
Soft  from  a  field  of  the  south, 

To  my  mouth 
Flutters  a  little,  white  dove, 

Oh  my  Love! 


134  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

[She  leaps  lightly  from  the  olive  press  to  the 
road  and  wanders  down  to  front,  gathering 
the  berries  that  hang  abundantly  on  the 
bushes.  The  disciples  return  from  the  road 
at  right.  They  are  unaware  of  Mary,  who 
now  sits  among  the  bushes  with  the  berries 
in  her  lap,  which  she  strings  on  a  straw, 
using  a  thorn  from  an  acacia  bush  for  a 
needle.] 
THOMAS  [looking  through  the  gate]. 

A  company  of  soldiers ! 
PHILIP  [joining  him]. 

In  the  garden? 

THE  LAME  MAN.     And  Jesus  prisoner! 
PHILIP.  We  have  no  swords ! 

THOMAS.      Simon  had   two,   but  what   are   they 

against 
A  cohort? 

PHILIP.  Hence,  find  Judas !  I  will  go 

Within  the  garden — gather  all  you  can 
That  we  may  set  him  free! 
[Up  the  path  of  the  garden  Simon  runs  wildly 
toward  the  gate.] 

Lo,  Simon  comes. 
SIMON  [sobbing]. 

Woe!    Woe! 
PHILIP  [staying  him  as  he  reaches  the  gate], 

Simon ! 

SIMON.  The  beauty  of  the  Lord 

Is  broken  on  a  kiss ! 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  135 

PHILIP.  Simon !    Simon ! 

SIMON.  Judas  betrayed  the  Master  with  a  kiss ! 
PHILIP.  Judas — he  who  has  loved  the  Master  so? 
SIMON.  I  smote  a  servant  with  my  ready  sword, 

But  Jesus  bade  me  sheathe  it  at  my  side — 

What  can  one  do  with  such  a  Master? 
MOCKING  VOICES  [in  the  garden]. 

Hail! 

PHILIP  [as  the  torches  begin  to  flash  among  the 
trees]. 

Hither  they  come! 

SIMON.  Haste  to  Jerusalem! 

MOCKING  VOICES.     All  hail,  King  of  the  Jews! 
THOMAS.  Come,  gather  swords 

In  thousands  from  the  people  who  adore. 
PHILIP  [a*  they  go  out  at  right]. 

The  people?  ay,  the  people  who  adore 

And  love  the  Master ;  they  will  rise  forthwith — 

A  hurricane  of  flame  upon  the  host ! 

[They  disappear — the  Lame  Man  bravely  fol- 
lowing -with  laborious  steps  on  crutches.] 
THE  LAME  MAN.    Oh,  that  these  crutches  were  a 
flank  of  spears 

Levelled  to  save  the  Master  from  this  thing! 

[He  is  lost  among  the  trees.] 
VOICES  [with  nearing  sound  of  many  feet]. 

All  hail,  King  of  the  Jews ! 
VOICE  OF  JUDAS  [in  an  agony  of  pleading]. 

Now — now — the  sign ! 

[The  soldiers  appear  with  lifted  torches  and  in 


136  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

their  midst  Jesus  walks — his  wrists  manacled 
before  him;  as  they  advance  and  turn  to  the 
right,  Judas  in  wild  anxiety  walks  at  the  left 
flank  of  the  company  with  imploring  hands 
outstretched  to  Jesus]. 

JUDAS.    O  Master — Master — O  my  Master — now  ! 
[The  crowd  of  mockers,  jeering,  behind  the  sol- 
diers, with  pointing  hands  at  Jesus.] 
CROWD.    He  is  a  master! 

Ay,  a  very  King! 
Hail,  King  of  the  Jews ! 

Where  is  your  crown? 
We'll  make  him  one  of  thorns ! 
JUDAS  [as  they  near  the  bend  of  the  road], 

Now  lift  your  hand 

And  let  these  know  Messias  in  their  midst! 
[They  begin  to  disappear  among  the  trees — 
the  torches'  flare  fading  to  a  twinkling  flame 
and  the  jeering  voices  dying  down  to  a  mur- 
mur of  mockery.'] 
VOICES.     King  of  the  Jews — King  of  the  Jews — 

King  of 

MARY  [sitting  in  the  moonlight,  looks  up  from 
counting  her  berries  and  listens  to  the  fading 
voices  from  the  wood,  then  with  a  little  low, 
sad  voice  sings]. 

There  was  a  king 

(Long,  long  ago) 

With  robe  and  ring, 

(Long,  long  ago) 


THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH  137 

And  when  he  smiled, 
A  little  child 
Put  forth  his  hand 
And  gave  command, 
•  (Long,  long  ago). 

[As  the  lights  are  lost  among  the  trees,  she  rises 
with  a  lace  of  red  berries  about  her  neck  and 
goes  towards  the  gate,  where  she  stands  look- 
ing w.] 

I  like  a  garden,  for  they  say  that  God 
Plays  with  boy  angels,  as  he  used  to  do 
When  flowers  grew  in  Eden  long  ago! 
[She  stands  within  the  gate,  leaning  her  head 
against   the  right  pillar  and  looking  away 
toward   left — the   moon   shines   full   on   her 
face.     Crazed  by  utter  grief \  Judas  returns 
down  the  road,  unloosing  the  girdle  about  his 
waist.  ] 
JUDAS.    My  God !  My  God ;  he  would  not  speak  to 

me — 

And  they  will  hang  him  high  on  Golgotha! 
MARY  [softly  singing']. 

There  was  a  King 

(Long,  long  ago) 
With  robe  and  ring, 

(Long,  long  ago) 

JUDAS.    O  Master !  Master !  I  will  hang  with  you. 
[He  leaps  upon  the  olive  press  and  climbs  the 


138  THE  MAN  OF  KERIOTH 

tree  behind  it  and  is  lost  to  view  among  its 
heavy  foliage.'] 
MARY  [singing]. 

And  when  he  smiled, 
A  little  child 
Put  forth  his  hand 
And  gave  command 
(Long,  long  ago). 

[With  a  breaking  cry,  Judas  falls  to  the  olive 
press,  where  he  lies  with  outstretched,  life- 
less arms  and  upturned  face.  Mary,  startled 
by  the  sound,  turns  and  looks  at  the  dead 
body.  Slowly,  with  widening  eyes,  she  ap- 
proaches the  press.  She  puts  forth  lier  hand 
and  at  the  touch  her  reason  is  restored  under 
the  stress  of  emotion.] 

MARY  [with  rush  of  tears  and  choTcmg  cries]. 
Jesus ! — Judas ! 


from  which  it  was  borrowed0 


A    000  047  384     3 


